


bridging the gap

by Mattecat



Series: Coinverse [3]
Category: Lego Ninjago
Genre: Character Death, Day of the Departed, Gen, Trans Character, Trans Female Character, Trans Female Skylor (Ninjago)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-02
Updated: 2019-02-20
Packaged: 2019-06-01 08:26:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 21,772
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15139115
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mattecat/pseuds/Mattecat
Summary: You need to work for your redemption. Morro knew this, but somehow, he didn't expect it to hurt so much. On the Day of the Departed, he tries to repair the damage he's done, with mixed results.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> i was gonna wait until this whole fic was completed before posting it but it's like 5000 words right now and halfway done? so whatever, it's chaptered and I'm breaking my rule of no starting new chaptered fics until I get my current WIP count down to 5 instead of fucken… 15… I am a human disaster and I cannot be contained.
> 
> ok.
> 
> hey, this is a sequel (sort of??) to _forgetting the coin for the ferryman,_ a fic where morro is resurrected and lives with cyrus borg. it's this AU's version of day of the departed. it's directly a sequel so you really ought to read forgetting the coin before reading this.
> 
> that's all! have fun!

Cyrus isn't sure if the holiday would be a touchy subject for Morro, so he doesn't bring it up, even as the Day of the Departed draws closer and closer. It's a relief when Morro speaks up the night before. "Dad, can we go to the museum tomorrow night?"

"Of course!" Cyrus says, a little too fast, maybe. "What for?"

"They're opening a Hall of Villainy, and I want to take picture with my exhibit."

"With your –" Cyrus sputters incoherently for a moment, making Morro smirk. "That seems insensitive of them, don't you think?"

"I think it's pretty funny." Morro shrugs and leans against the wall. "And it'd be nice to do something with you on the Day of the Departed."

"You want me to go with you?"

"Yeah."

Cyrus smiles. "I'd love to, Morro. Which museum is it?"

"You know. The history museum. The one everyone knows."

Cyrus' smile disappears.

Morro frowns at him. "Is something wrong?"

"N – no," Cyrus says unconvincingly. "I just… haven't been in a long time."

"Neither have I. So it's new for both of us."

"I wouldn't call it new, more…" Cyrus takes out his phone and quickly searches the museum's homepage. "Do you happen to know who's the curator there?"

"It's – wait, do they still call themselves curators when it's not an art museum?"

"Do you know who it is or not?"

Morro blinks. "I'm not sure. Someone with a funny name."

The museum website confirms that the museum director is one Sander Saunders, and Cyrus takes a deep breath. The director will certainly make an appearance, too, at the opening night of such a highly publicized exhibit. "Well," he says, "it may be due time to face the demons of my own past."

"What are you talking about?"

"Nothing." Cyrus pockets his phone. "It might be fairly crowded. Do you think we should try and get tickets beforehand?"

Morro snorts. "Of course not. I'm featured in the exhibit, they're sure to give us free admission."

* * *

"What do you _mean_ we don't get free admission?!"

Cyrus sighs while Morro continues to argue with admissions. He can almost _feel_ Borg Industries' stock dropping by the second. The people in line behind them are starting to whisper among themselves, and Cyrus doesn't want to call too much attention to himself in case the director notices he's here – but Morro has no such qualms.

"Am I or am I not featured in this exhibit?!"

The man behind the counter bites his lip and sucks in air through his teeth. "Well, uh, we didn't technically use your real name…"

"Of course you didn't," Morro says in disgust. "But everyone knows the Stiix Ghost is me. Which is ridiculous, I had never been to Stiix before that. I don't think Stiix even existed when I was alive –"

"We're holding up the line, Morro," Cyrus says, holding his head in his hands.

"You mean _they're_ holding up the line, because they're not giving us the free admission I deserve –"

"I dunno," a familiar voice says loudly. Kai marches up to the front of the line and throws his arm across Morro's shoulders. "Don't think you should be rewarded for what you did in Stiix!" he says while Morro pushes him away. "It was really some shit, y'know?"

"Kai!" comes Jay's shout from across the room. "What are you doing? Who's that?"

"It's Cy-Borg and Sky-Borg!" Kai yells back.

"It's nice to see you, Kai!" Cyrus says with a smile. "We were just about to pay for our tickets –"

"No!" Morro says loudly. "If I'm in the exhibit, I should get free admission!"

"Hey," Kai says. "You've got a point! Maybe us ninja should get free admission, too, seeing as we were the ones who took down all these villains –"

Cyrus sighs loudly and takes a breath to sternly tell Morro to let it drop, but a new voice speaks up before he can.

"Of course the ninja get free admission!" The man chuckles, twirling one end of his long white mustache around his finger as he walks. "What seems to be the trouble – ah."

His eyes fall on Morro and Cyrus. Cyrus sets his jaw and fakes a smile.

The man squints through his spectacles. "Borg," he says.

"Saunders," says Cyrus.

Kai looks back and forth between them. "You two know each other or something?"

"In a way." Borg puts his hands on his wheels in case he needs to move. "It's certainly been a while."

"Indeed it has," Saunders says. "What have you been up to? Other than harboring ancient evils, of course. The last two times certainly didn't go unnoticed."

Cyrus' mouth twitches. "I suppose I have been garnering a lot of media attention," he says. "While you've been… what is it you've been doing? Not much, from what I've heard."

"What's going on?" Morro asks.

"I think they know each other," Kai says.

Saunders smiles and turns to Kai. "Are the other ninjas here as well? Would you like a special tour of the Hall of Villainy? No charge, of course."

"Oh, come on!" Morro says loudly. Cyrus winces as he continues. "We should get free admission, too! If I'm a feature –"

"Well," Saunders says, "if you're so proud of what you've done, I'd be happy to let you and your…" He pauses. "… _father_ in for free as well."

" _Thank_ you," Morro says, seemingly oblivious to Cyrus' discomfort. "Alright, where did you put me?"

* * *

Morro stays far away from the ninja when they're in the main hall, most likely because Wu is there. Cyrus can't seem to shut Saunders' fake accent out of his ears; he can hear him babbling to the ninja about the exhibit even when he and Morro are across the room. Morro is staring at his own model, frowning.

"How did they get it so accurate?" he asks. "I didn't think there were that many cameras at Stiix back then."

Cyrus makes a noncommittal noise and glances at his watch.

"Are you alright?"

"Hm?"

He looks up to see Morro frowning at him. "You've been acting different ever since we got here," he says. "Is there something wrong?"

"It's nothing, just…" Cyrus sighs. "It seems strange, to have an exhibit celebrating the worst part of people's lives. I'm sure plenty of the people here would not want to be remembered in this way."

"It's mostly just funny," Morro says. "I mean, the people here wouldn't want to be remembered like this because they wanted to win. Doesn't really matter what they think now."

"Morro, we are standing next to a model of yourself."

"Yeah, I think they made me taller here than I actually am."

"Morro, please. How can you be this comfortable?"

Morro blinks. "You're not?"

"No!" Cyrus exclaims. "They put a model of _you_ in an exhibit of _villains,_ alongside people like –" He gestures vaguely around them. "– people who _didn't_ feel remorse for their actions, not to mention I overheard Saunders say he was going to have a model of the _Overlord_ – this whole thing is _exceedingly_ uncomfortable, Morro! I'm half convinced Saunders is putting this whole thing on to get back at me!"

"What?"

Cyrus realizes what he said a moment too late. "I mean – well. It's not a comfortable situation for me, that's all."

Morro glances back at Saunders. "You and –"

Cyrus sighs. "It's… not important. We've had some conflict in the past, I'll say that much."

"Uh. Okay." Morro takes a deep breath. "You can go, if you want."

"Nonsense, Morro, you wanted me to come with you –"

"Not if you're going to be miserable. I want to stay for a little longer, but I'll meet you somewhere outside."

Cyrus doesn't want to leave Morro alone, not on the Day of the Departed – but he really, _really_ doesn't want to be around Saunders any longer than he has to be. "Well, if you're certain," he says. "Text me if you need anything, alright?"

"Alright, Dad."

Cyrus smiles, and Morro smiles back.

* * *

He waits until the ninja leave to start climbing on the exhibits. His model is posed a little awkwardly, and the sword looks sharp enough to be a real sword, so he has to be careful, but Morro's still able to get some good pictures. He doesn't think there's anyone left in the exhibit, so when Cole clears his throat and asks, "What are you doing?" Morro nearly drops his phone.

"Why are you still here?!" he yelps, twisting around to look at Cole standing in the middle of the hall.

Cole narrows his eyes. He has his ninja hood on, for some reason. "I've got stuff. What are you doing?"

Morro climbs down from his model and crosses his arms, looking away. He finds it hard to look Cole in the eyes, sometimes. "None of your business."

"Are you taking selfies with your exhibit?"

"None of your business."

"Whatever," Cole says, and he turns away. "Just don't tell anyone I was here, alright?"

"Alright."

"Good."

Before Cole reaches the door, Morro opens his mouth, rethinks what he's about to say, then goes through with it. "I'm sorry."

Cole freezes, his back turned to him. "You're what?"

"I'm sorry. For what I did." Morro forces himself to look at Cole, even if Cole isn't looking at him. "The others don't have… lasting effects from my actions. You… you do. So I'm sorry."

"Lasting effects," Cole says. "You mean like how Lloyd wakes up screaming sometimes 'cause he got sleep paralysis and thought he was possessed again?"

Morro instantly realizes he's made a mistake. "That's not what I –"

"Or like how Nya still pushes herself too hard because she remembers how she was the only one who could save everyone and she almost couldn't do it?"

"I didn't mean –"

"Or how Kai beats himself up because he promised Lloyd he'd protect him and then he felt like he failed?"

Morro decides to stop trying to defend himself.

"Or how Zane keeps running simulations to see if he could've done something different, something to prevent all that from happening?" Cole keeps going. "Or how Jay keeps promising me we'll find a way to fix this, that he'll find a way to bring me back to life, even though the only time we even got close was a failure? But no, I'm the only one who has lasting effects 'cause I'm the only one who actually died!"

Cole's shoulders are trembling. He's keeping his back turned. Morro doesn't know if he should be grateful that he's not looking at him. A long silence passes between them, until Cole wordlessly continues walking.

Morro leaves.

He steals the outfit off his model before he goes.

* * *

Day of the Departed involves costumes, now. Maybe it did fifty years ago, too, but he was never allowed to participate. No one bats an eye when Morro goes out looking all the same he did when he attempted to summon the preeminent in Stiix, though with a little more color in his complexion. He gets a few compliments on his costume. Morro shrugs and keeps walking.

At some point, he ends up where there are children running around wearing white sheets. Morro cracks a smile at the "ghosts." A couple of the kids point at him and babble to their friends. Morro ignores them for the most part, until he's stopped to read a sign and he hears someone clear their throat behind him.

"Um," the tiny voice says. Morro turns around and freezes.

Standing right behind him is a kid dressed _just like Morro._

The gi, the ripped shawl, the green streak in what is obviously a wig – the costume is frighteningly accurate. Smaller, obviously, since this kid doesn't look much older than eight or nine. Morro stares at them with his mouth hanging open. The kid grins at him, then swings their arms up and shouts, "Boo!"

Morro laughs. He can't help it.

The kid frowns. "You're supposed to least pretend to be scared," they say. "That's what adults do, always."

"You're definitely scary," Morro says, finding himself grinning. "Not to me, though!"

"Right! 'Cause we have the same costume." The kid goes back to grinning. "That's why I came over! Your costume is good! I'm Alex, what's your name?"

"Morro."

The kid gasps. "Whoa! Like the real Stiix Ghost?"

Morro crouches down. "Do you want to hear a secret?" he says.

Alex leans in and shouts, "Yeah!"

"Careful! It's a very important secret, so you have to be quiet about it."

Alex nods and repeats themself in a whisper. "Yeah!"

Morro can't keep the grin off his face. "I am the real Stiix Ghost."

The kid doesn't say anything for a few moments. They take a step back, their mouth curved down in a frown while they examine Morro through narrowed eyes. They're not showing any of the enthusiasm they had moments before, and Morro wonders if he's made a mistake.

Finally, Alex speaks.

"Aren't you too old to go trick or treating?"

"What?"

"I mean, you're like, a hundred years old, right? I think that's too old to –"

"Okay, stop." Morro holds up a hand. "First off, I'm not a hundred years old. I was only dead for fifty years, and ghosts don't age. I'm seventeen."

"That's still pretty old," Alex says.

"No it's not. What is trick or treating, anyway?"

Alex blinks. "You don't know what trick or treating is?" he says in alarm. "Everyone's done it!"

Morro rolls his eyes. "Guess they hadn't invented it fifty years ago."

"So you've never been trick or treating? Ever?"

"I guess not."

"Then we gotta do it!"

"What?"

Alex grabs his hand and grins. "I was just gonna go alone, 'cause my mom is busy and none of the kids at school wanted to go with me, but we can go! And we can share the candy!"

"There's candy?" Morro says.

"Yeah! Let's go!"

Alex pulls him away, and Morro forgets all about seeing Cole at the museum.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this was meant to be updated wednesday but I haven't had stable internet for a while lmao
> 
> HERE we go! things start happening!

"Alright, Yang! Show yourself!"

Cole steps deeper into the Temple of Airjitzu. The cold wind is numb against his back, blowing through the doors he kicked open. Everything's felt numb for a long time, now.

The first Day of the Departed he spent as a ghost, in the year between Morro summoning the Preeminent and Lloyd resurrecting Morro – it was horrible. He met up with his dad and tried to laugh off the whole – the whole ghost thing. It wasn't like he was _departed,_ not like the ghosts in the Cursed Realm, not like his _mom._ Sure, he was – he was dead, yeah, but it just meant – it didn't mean – he was –

They lit a lantern for his mom and Cole excused himself to go to bed early. He spent the rest of the night lying in bed miserable, because ghosts didn't _sleep._

A few months later, Lloyd went to the Temple of Resurrection.

"You hear me!" he yells. "Show yourself!"

"You received my message."

Cole stiffens. Yang's ghost steps out from behind the staircase, clasping his hands behind his back. Cole forces the fear out of his head, replaces it with anger.

"I got it all right," he spits. "And I've got one for _you._ " He reaches for the weapon on his back, his hands trembling. "Direct from the business end of your own blade!"

Yang gasps. Good, he's caught him off guard.

"The Yin Blade," Yang whispers. "But… how? It's encased in solid clearstone, that case is impenetrable!"

"Not to a ghost," Cole says, advancing towards him. "Which, thanks to you, I still am!"

He can't be mad at Lloyd. Not anymore. Lloyd told him what had happened, when Kai and Nya called them all to the hospital. "I tried to resurrect my dad, first," he had said in a shaky voice. "I… I thought it didn't work. Then I thought – well, I'll try Morro, and – and he came back, and he was there, and I couldn't…"

"But why did the Temple resurrect Morro's body there, while Garmadon stayed in the Cursed Realm?" Jay asked. "I mean, what's up with that?"

"Morro's body was destroyed," Zane said. "The Temple must have had to completely recreate him in the resurrection. If Garmadon's body was mostly intact…"

Lloyd shuddered. "I'm sorry, Cole," he said. "I was going to bring you back, too. I just – I thought it hadn't worked for my dad, and then it worked for Morro, and then – I couldn't – I'm so sorry, Cole, I…"

No, Cole thinks. He can't be mad at Lloyd.

Not when there are so many other people to be mad at.

Yang takes a few steps back as Cole comes closer. "What are you going to do?"

"There's magic in the air," Cole says. "You know, eclipse and all?!"

"Please – where is your holiday spirit?" Yang pleads, stepping to the side. Cole follows his movement, keeping the Yin Blade pointed at him. "It's the Day of the Departed!"

"Uh-huh!" Cole grits his teeth. "And I'm settling my debt!"

He lunges at Yang, who smoothly moves out of the way.

The Yin Blade smashes the orb behind him.

Cole yanks the blade back as Yang begins to cackle. "What's so funny?!" he demands.

Yang grins.

"This," he says, gesturing at the cracked hole in the orb.

"That," he says, gesturing at the lunar eclipse outside.

"All of it," he says, spreading his arms in front of him.

Green moonlight beams down into the orb. Cole jumps backwards. If he still had a heart, it would be pounding. "What's happening?!"

Puffs of green mist drift out of the orb, hovering just above the ground. Cole can feel the aura coming off them in waves, stinging his eyes and eliciting a strangled cry from his throat. Yang keeps laughing, and laughing, as the mist screeches and moves out the open door of the temple. There's nothing Cole can do to stop it.

"You never should have played with dark magic, boy," Yang taunts as he steps closer. "This Day of the Departed will be remembered as my night of the return. Give me the blade, if you please."

Cole takes a step back as Yang gets close. "Y – yeah?!" he stammers. "I don't think so!"

Yang snarls. "Well, I do!"

The atmosphere changes. Cole whirls around. There are a half dozen ghosts in white uniforms behind him, all affixing him with the same glare. "What?!" he yelps, and raises the Yin Blade – the ghosts of Yang's students pile on top of him before he can defend himself.

Despite his struggles, the ghosts force him to his feet and snap handcuffs on him – vengestone, he realizes, nullifying his elemental powers, and stopping him from phasing through them as a ghost. Yang takes the Yin Blade and walks away.

"No!" Cole yells. "Come back here! We're not done yet!"

"You've served your purpose," Yang says, without looking back. "I have business to attend to."

* * *

On the night of the Day of the Departed – the Night of the Departed, if you will – it has apparently become a tradition for people to hand out candy to kids in costume. Morro is not really a kid anymore, and he's tall on top of it, so he gets some strange looks from the adults at the houses, but Alex has enough enthusiasm for both of them. Some of the people giving them candy compliment Morro on the outfit he stole from the museum.

"You can't eat it yet," Alex says sternly when Morro tries to reach into their shared bag. "You have to wait until we're done."

"I'm just supposed to carry all this around _without_ eating it?" Morro makes another grab for candy.

Alex yanks the bag away from him and clutches it to their chest. "Then I'll carry it!"

Morro laughs. "That thing's going to be heavier than you are, soon!"

"Well, you still can't eat it!"

Morro shakes his head and looks around. "Huh," he says. "There are some more ghosts over there."

Alex looks where he's pointing. "Nuh-uh," they say. "They're just kids with sheets."

"Surely they'll be worthy additions to our ghost army."

They look up at him with wide eyes. "Really?"

"Don't you want to have enough power to take over Ninjago and curse all sixteen realms?"

Alex considers this, then says, "I just want candy."

Morro takes a deep breath and reels himself in. "Of course," he says. "Well… that just makes more candy for us."

"I wanna go to the museum," Alex says.

"What?"

"Um, my mom is working at the museum tonight, and I wanna see her. Sometimes she gets me something from the gift shop." Alex pushes up their sleeve, revealing a colorful kid's watch on their wrist. "There's a concert after, too, and I wanna go."

The idea of meeting this kid's mother isn't the most appealing. Morro doesn't think most adults would take kindly to him being around their child. "How about we get more candy, instead," he says.

"No! I want my mom to meet you! She's gonna think it's so cool that I met the real Stiix Ghost!"

"Uh –"

"C'mon!" Alex doesn't give him any room to argue as they grab his hand and pull him towards the museum. Morro hisses under his breath and hopes nothing out of the ordinary will happen.

* * *

The orange lanterns give a warm glow to the streets as Morro and Alex walk towards the museum. Morro picks at the shawl of his stolen costume and hopes no one will put two and two together.

The gift shop is closed. "Aww!" Alex says loudly. "Why isn't it open?"

"It's a holiday," Morro says.

"Yeah, but it should be open! Why isn't my mom here?"

Morro is about to respond when a chill makes him shudder. The light has changed; he glances outside. A cold horror sinks in his gut when he sees that the orange lanterns have shifted hue to _green._

Alex doesn't notice, still complaining loudly about the gift shop. Morro grabs their hand and pulls them further inside.

"What are you doing?" Alex asks.

"Shh!" Morro hisses. "Something's wrong. Stay here; I'm going to check it out."

"What?"

Morro goes outside. Whatever caused them, the green lanterns are fading back to orange again, and the chill in the air is gone. Still – if there's a ghost around, it wouldn't be a stretch to say they would have a grudge against Morro, what with betraying the Cursed Realm and also being alive in general.

He decides to go back in the museum.

Alex isn't where he left them; Morro feels a prickle of anxiety. "Hello?" he calls out. "Alex? Where'd you go?"

His feet take him towards the Hall of Villainy again. As he gets closer, he can hear voices.

"You're not a ghost," says a grating voice that makes Morro wince, like the sound of metal on metal. "Who are you?"

"I am a ghost," Alex's voice insists. "I'm the Stiix Ghost!"

"…who?" says another voice

Morro reaches the room. "Alex," he calls out, stepping through the entry – and then he freezes, his eyes wide.

The mannequins from the Hall of Villainy turn and stare at him.

"You're not a ghost, either," says the hooded robot with the grating voice; Morro read his plaque back when he was still immobile – this is _Cryptor,_ one of the nindroids who had worked under the Overlord when the ancient evil controlled Borg Industries.

"You're dressed the same as the kid," a four-armed skeleton says, his bones clacking together. "Who are you?"

"Uh," says Morro. His eyes dart from his own undressed mannequin and back to the living mannequins standing before him. "I, uh…"

"Hey, wait a second!" an older man exclaims. "You're _her_ lieutenant, aren't you?!"

"What?" says Alex while Morro is frozen in horror.

"Yeah, he is!" The man fiddles with the controls on his chair. "And – I'm _pretty sure_ he's supposed to be – ack! No, come back!"

The mechanical chair stands itself up on dinosaur-like legs and ambles off out of view in the completely opposite direction. Alex giggles as there's a distant _crash,_ followed by the man calling out, "I'm okay!"

Morro takes the opportunity to glance at the plaque beneath where the man had sat. A chill runs through him when he recognizes the name "Chen."

"Supposed to be what?" a four-armed statue demands.

"Dead, probably," Morro says, his heart pounding. "I was – uh – a ghost for a long time. Got resurrected. Long story."

"Long story, indeed," a voice says from beside him – Morro flinches as a white-scaled serpentine slithers past him. "This seems a very interesting arrangement we have here. What's the plan?"

"Plan?" the skeleton says. "I don't know who these weirdos are!"

The statue straightens up. "I am Kozu! Destroyer of all foolish enough to challenge me!"

He slams his sword into a pillar, knocking it over and causing the entire museum to rumble. Alex gasps and clings to Morro.

"That's cool," the skeleton says. "I'm Samukai. I bet I could beat you in arm wrestling."

" _You insolent_ –"

"Well, I know _you,_ " the serpentine says to Cryptor. "So nice to see you, my loyal friend!"

Chen's chair staggers back into view. "Still okay!" Chen announces, and his eyes fall on the serpentine.

The serpentine's red eyes narrow. "Chen," he says.

"Pythor," says Chen.

"I wanna go home," Alex whispers.

Morro snaps himself back to reality. "Well, it was nice to meet you all," he says, trying to keep his voice from shaking. "But we've got to be on our way. We have a very busy night, after all."

"A very busy night, indeed."

All of them start at the new voice, and they whip their heads back and forth trying to discern where it came from.

"This way," the voice says, annoyed. "I'm over here."

"Where?" Samukai asks.

"Oh! I know!" Chen says. "Wait, no! Chair! Wrong way!"

Morro finds himself looking at the opening to the next hall, where he had seen Cole earlier that night. He locks eyes with the painting above the empty display case. The painting glares at him.

"Over _here!_ " the voice shouts. "Get over here!"

Without thinking, Morro follows the other villains to the painting, despite Alex trying to tug him back. On the way there, they pass his mannequin, stripped of its clothes. Morro tries not to look too hard at it, nor the plaque underneath reading, "the Stiix Ghost."

The portrait of Master Yang twists forward, staring down at them all. "My magic has brought you back," he says, "but it will not last forever. With the exception of the two who are alive, you may only remain for the duration of the eclipse." He pauses. "Unless…"

"Oh, so you want something of us," Cryptor says. "I refuse to be ordered around by –"

"Well, I'll do it," Chen says quickly. "Go back to the Cursed Realm? No thanks! What do you want? Money? Riches? Wealth?"

"Aren't those all the same thing?" Samukai asks.

"Shut up!"

"The only thing I want from you is to keep the ninja busy," Yang snaps. "To remain here, you must sacrifice someone else. Use your Departed Blades to kill the ninja, and you will take their place in the living world. Do nothing, and you'll return from whence you came. The choice is yours. Get to it! I have the Earth Ninja to take care of."

The painting reverts to lifelessness.

The villains all look around at each other with narrowed eyes. Morro's heart is pounding, and Alex is clinging to his leg and trembling like a leaf.

"Well," says Pythor, "I'm taking Lloyd."

"I want Kai and Nya," Chen says immediately.

"No fair!" Samukai says loudly. "You can't get two! Why does he get to have two?"

"Zane is mine," Cryptor growls.

"Does anyone else realize how unfair this is?!" Samuai puts all four of his hands on his hips. "Yang's got Cole, so now there's only Jay to split between three of us! Four, if you count that kid!"

"They're with me," Morro says immediately, putting a hand on Alex' back. He can feel the kid trembling. Hopefully they can get out of here soon.

"I want the Brown Ninja," Kozu announces.

Everyone turns to him, staring out the window at where the concert is setting up. "Is there a brown ninja?" Morro asks.

"I want to kill him."

"Have fun with that," Samukai says. "Hey – Morro, right? Rock-paper-scissors for Jay?"

"You're free to take Jay without me," Morro says. "I don't need to take anyone's place. I'm already alive – I'd like to keep it that way."

Pythor raises an eyebrow. "Do you doubt your own strength? Surely you'd have no problem taking on just one of the ninja – Chen here is confident enough to take two."

Morro does not like Pythor, he decides. He knows very little about the serpentine, but what he does know is enough to make him nervous. Pythor is the only one who was around for Morro's resurrection, and the only one who would know he's on amicable terms with the ninja now. If he lets anything slip – especially if he lets slip in front of Cryptor that –

"Though I must say, I'm unsurprised that Cyrus Borg's son is unwilling to inflict harm on the ninja."

Shit.

" _Whose_ son?" Cryptor growls.

Morro takes a deep breath. "I'm not going to get in your way," he says calmly. "I have no stakes in this. You do what you need to do."

He forces himself to turn away, feeling Cryptor's glare piercing into the back of his head. Alex nearly trips over their own feet in their haste to follow Morro out the door.

None of the villains follow.

Morro only allows himself to relax when he's far down the street from the museum. "Okay," he says. "Alex, let's –"

Alex isn't clinging to his leg anymore. Morro turns around. The kid is nowhere to be seen.

"Shit!"

He turns back towards the museum and runs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i have no idea how to characterize samukai and ended up not even trying to be accurate
> 
> sorry 2 all samukai fans


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> what's up I feel like crap for not updating or posting like… anything in a month, so here's a quick update while I continue work on some original stuff. it's very exciting but also I have Deadlines, so my fanfiction output has… suffered, to say the least.
> 
> anyway. have fun with this chapter.

"Alex! Alex! Where are you?!"

Morro keeps calling out as he runs through the crowd, the bag of candy clutched to his chest. Alex wasn't at the museum when he went back – and neither were the villains. Morro asks every group of kids he encounters if they've seen, "A kid dressed like me, but smaller." They all say no and continue on their way.

He's starting to panic when he runs into Ronin.

"Whoa!" Ronin jumps back and raises his hands up in front of him. Morro stops running and stares at him. It takes a moment for Ronin to let out a breath and lower his hands. "Damn, kid, you scared me. Why're you dressed like that?"

"Moment of impulse," Morro says. "Have you seen a kid dressed like me?"

"No. Should I have? What happened?"

The words spill out of him faster than he can think. Morro starts with running into Alex and going trick or treating, and stumbles through the explanation of what happened at the museum. "The mannequins came to life! They're ghosts now! Sensei Yang brought them back, and now they're trying to kill the ninja, and Cryptor knows I'm Borg's son, and I can't find Alex, and –"

Ronin takes a deep breath. "What do the ninja think about this?"

"I haven't told them," Morro says.

"Uh, why?"

Morro thought he had a compelling reason for why he hasn't contacted the ninja – he could cite the promise he made to Lloyd to stay away from him, for one. Instead, what comes out of his mouth is, "The ninja don't like me."

Ronin snorts. "No shit. They'll like you less if they find out you knew these guys were coming to kill them and you didn't say anything."

"I don't even know where they are!" Morro exclaims. "It's the Day of the Departed! They're probably all doing stuff with their families!"

"Not an excuse, kid." Ronin turns and gestures for Morro to follow him. "C'mon, you have Skylor's number, right?"

"Yeah? So?"

"Skylor has Nya's number, Nya will know where Kai is, and they'll be able to warn the others. In the meantime, we'll go see if Jay needs any help."

Morro frowns and runs a few steps to keep up with Ronin's pace. "Why Jay?"

"'Cause I know where his parents live, and I can probably get free scrap metal if I show up at the right time.

Morro is about to respond when a scream rings out. "Those aren't costumes! _Those aren't costumes!_ "

"Was that Dareth?" Ronin says in alarm.

"Kozu said he wanted to kill the Brown Ninja," Morro says.

"Shit, that's Dareth. Change of plans, let's go get him out of trouble."

* * *

Skylor knows there's a figure of her father in the Hall of Villainy, so she's grateful neither Nya or Morro ask her to visit it with them – and the latter she knows will want to see his own exhibit. No, Skylor is content spending the Day of the Departed on her own, lighting a lantern for her mother and sitting alone in her apartment.

She's wary when she hears her phone buzz, moreso when she sees it's a text from Morro.

< hey are you there  
< some guys are trying to kill the ninja  
< need you to warn them

Skylor gasps and frantically texts back.

Got it. I'll go tell Kai and Nya. >

< no just text them

What? I need to help! >

< you really don't

Why not? >

Morro doesn't answer for a long few moments, and Skylor is considering calling him when she finally gets his next texts.

< the ghosts of the people in the hall of villainy possessed their mannequins  
< your dad is there  
< he's going after kai and nya  
< please just trust me

Skylor turns her phone off and runs out the door.

* * *

Kozu has found himself a handful of stone warriors, and has chased Dareth off the stage. The audience appears to think it's part of the show, which mostly means that they don't get in Morro and Ronin's way when they chase after them.

"Do you actually have a plan?" Morro asks.

Ronin shrugs. "I know the stone warriors are supposed to be invincible, but these guys are just mannequins. We can probably handle them."

Morro wrinkles his nose as he runs. "That's a big probably."

They don't catch up to the stone warriors until they reach the museum again. Dareth runs in the back door and slams it shut behind him. Kozu pulls it off its hinges.

"Hey, big guy!" Ronin calls out. "Leave that little guy alone!"

Kozu and his soldiers turn to face them. "You again!" he snarls.

Ronin frowns. "I'm pretty sure this is the first time we've met."

"He's talking about me," says Morro.

"Oh, right."

Morro can't help but feel a spike of fear when Kozu advances towards him. "You said you had no stakes in this," Kozu says. "Why are you here now?"

Pushing down his fear, Morro forces himself to meet Kozu's gaze. "Where's Alex?!" he demands.

"The smaller you?" Kozu laughs. "Is that all you want? Let me ensure my place in the living world and then I'll tell you where they are."

"What's he talking about?" Ronin whispers.

"Tell me now!" Morro grits his teeth. "Your stay in this world ended a long time ago! You have no place here anymore! Tell me – or I'll make you!"

Kozu keeps laughing, and he raises his sword up high. Morro readies himself to dodge, but is thrown off-balance when Ronin grabs him and pulls him out of the way. The sword smashes into the pavement.

"Hey!" Morro snaps, yanking himself out of Ronin's grip. "What was that for?!"

Ronin raises an eyebrow. "Uh, you were about to get killed?" He grabs Morro again. "C'mon, we should… uh…"

He trails off, looking at the stone warriors surrounding them. Morro rolls his eyes and pulls away from Ronin again.

"I've got this," he says. "These rocks are no match for an elemental master."

Morro sends a gust of wind at the nearest stone warriors. They don't budge.

"Yeah," Ronin says. "About that. I think these guys are too heavy for you to push them around."

Morro grits his teeth and keeps the wind going, right in Kozu's face as the statue steps closer and closer. Kozu shakes his head. "An elemental master, indeed," he says. "A weak one. I've fought stronger. Your little friend –"

Dareth's voice interrupts from inside the museum. "Found it!"

Kozu freezes. "What?!"

All the stone warriors stiffen, and one by one, they turn towards Kozu. Kozu takes a step back, away from Morro and Ronin. In the doorframe leading into the museum, there stands a man dressed in brown with an elaborate stone helmet on his head. He grins and points directly at Kozu.

"Stone army," the man says, "get rid of that dude!"

Kozu yells wordlessly as the stone warriors pile on top of him. Morro and Ronin stare for a few moments, until Ronin clears his throat. "Looks like you've got this under control," he says to the man. "See you, Dareth! C'mon, kid, let's go check on the others."

Morro isn't sure what just happened. He decides not to ask questions, and follows Ronin away from the museum.

* * *

Nya sighs. "Feels weird, being back in our parent's shop after all this time," she says, walking outside and looking out at the moon. "This eclipse just makes it… spookier."

Kai follows her out. "I wish we knew what happened to them," he says. "Do you think we'll ever find out?"

"I could tell you!" a cheerful voice says.

Kai and Nya whip their heads around. Chen grins down at them from on top of his chair, carried on top of a monster's automated skeleton. "But," he says, "I think you have bigger things to worry about!"

Nya reaches for her weapon, then remembers they don't have them. They hadn't come to their parents' old blacksmith shop expecting a fight! She locks eyes with Kai, and her brother runs back into the building while Chen continues talking.

"I've finally got the hang of this thing," he tells them, fiddling with the chair's buttons. "So there'll be no problem taking your place in the living world and sending you two to the Cursed Realm. I think? You're supposed to take my place, right? Maybe you'll go to the Departed Realm instead. Oh, who cares!"

A variety of apparatuses burst out from the chair – ribbons, an egg beater, a pillow, and other similarly nonthreatening items. Chen scowls and bangs at his control panel. "Oh, come on! Work, you stupid thing! I'm sorry, chair, I don't mean to call you stupid _but you're stupid!_ "

Kai runs back out with two swords and tosses one to Nya. "I don't know why you're back," he says, "but we'll defeat you as many times as we have to!"

Nya's phone buzzes. Without thinking, she takes it out to read the text and gasps.

"Focus, sis!" Kai yelps. "He's not alone!"

She looks up to see two of the Anacondrai cultists in their own vehicles. One revs their engine.

Chen cackles. "The Hall of Henchmen was a good addition to the museum, I'll say! Once I'm alive again, I should give the director a visit, just like old times!"

Kai snorts. "Like the good Doctor Saunders would ever hang out with the likes of you."

A machine gun extends from the chair.

"You don't know anything, do you?" Chen says. "And you never will. Goodbye!"

* * *

"Y'know," Jay says, "we have this lantern every year, but you've never told me who we're lighting it for. I had grandparents, right?"

"Of course!" Edna says. "My parents were jerks, though. We're not lighting this lantern for them, oh no."

" _What?_ What about Pa's?"

Ed chuckles. "I've told you about them, haven't I? They would've loved to meet you, but, y'know, they're departed now. Maybe this lantern will call them back, just for a night!"

Jay shudders at the thought of ghosts – but that's not fair, Cole's a ghost, and they're still best buds. Always will be. "Maybe," he says, and manages a shaky grin. "It'd be nice if only the good ghosts came back, that's for sure."

"Aw, but that would be no fun!"

Jay yelps and jumps to his feet. Samukai stares at him with his perpetual grin, accompanied by two skeleton henchmen.

"It's been awhile!" Samukai says. "How've you been?"

"Jay, dear, do you know this person?" Edna asks.

"Yes!" Jay says. "He's a bad guy!"

"He is?" Ed says. "I had a feeling, because of the skeleton thing, but it's always best not to assume."

Samukai steps closer, his bones clacking. "You didn't ask, but I've been doing pretty good! Y'know, considering I've been super, super dead and in the Departed Realm." He draws his weapon. "Luckily for me, I get to have a new spot in the living world – and all I have to do is take your place!"

"Take my place?!" Jay exclaims. "You mean you're gonna replace me?!"

"Yeah? That's basically what it means, yeah."

"Don't worry, Jay," Ed says with a smile. "No one could ever replace you."

"And I would never call him my son," Edna asks.

Samukai rolls his eyes. "Not that kind of replacing! I don't want you as my mom, either."

"You take that back!" Jay yells. "My ma is the best mom in all the realms, and you'd be grateful to be her son!"

"…okay," says Samukai. He motions to his henchmen. "Well, anyway, I'm getting rid of you. So long!"

* * *

"We really should find a permanent base," Misako says, opening letters at the table. "The Bounty is a nice place, but we're giving the mailman a lot of trouble."

Lloyd laughs. "I gotta say, he's pretty good at his job! We really move around a lot."

Misako smiles. "I'm not sure he'd appreciate that compliment. He mostly complains about us making his job harder."

"Lloyd? Are you going to join me?"

"Coming, dad!" Lloyd jumps up from the table and runs out to the deck. He pauses at the door, turns back to Misako. "Mom, are you sure you want to stay in here?"

"I have some things to take care of, dear." Misako doesn't turn to look at him. "Go spend time with your father."

Lloyd hesitates, then nods. "Okay!"

Garmadon smiles at Lloyd when he approaches, sitting on the deck with his cane by his side. Lloyd tries to keep the smile on his face. He can't help but think of last year's Day of the Departed, when his father was gone, and he and Misako lit a lantern for him, and Lloyd cried, and cried, and when Wu spoke of the Temple of Resurrection, Lloyd knew he had to –

"Son? Are you alright?"

Lloyd sniffs and wipes his eyes. "Yeah," he says. "Sorry."

He sits down next to Garmadon, who puts an arm around him. "I know, son," Garmadon says. "It's… it's a lot to adjust to. Just remember I'm glad to be here with you."

He shouldn't cry. His dad is alive, after everything that happened – that's not something to cry about. Lloyd feels tears well up anyway.

"Who are we lighting the lantern for?" he asks.

"Your grandfather." Garmadon sighs and looks down at the lantern with a smile. "He… he had his faults, certainly, but… I miss him, still."

"Faults, hmm? Were they anything like your _sss_ , Garmadon?"

They snap their heads towards the source of the voice. Pythor grins at them, holding a golden staff.

Lloyd jumps to his feet. "What do you want?!" he shouts. "Why are you here?!"

"Lloyd –" Garmadon stands up, grabbing his cane and putting his weight on it. "Be careful, there's dark magic on that staff!"

"Well," Pythor says, "the others were supposed to use their Departed Blades to take the place of people in the living world, but since I'm already alive, I just thought I'd have some fun. Have another go at sending your father off. He would recognize dark magic, wouldn't he?"

Lloyd turns away for one moment, looking back towards the door. "Mom! Call the others!"

"Lloyd, look out!"

He barely ducks out of the way in time. Pythor adjusts his grip on the staff and backs up, hissing. "Such good reflexes!" he says. "Can your father boast the same?"

" _Don't you touch him!_ " Lloyd screams, and he lunges at Pythor – no weapon, nothing but the green energy sparking in his hands, ignoring even Garmadon's shouted cautions.

* * *

All Cole can think of is how this is all his fault.

Stealing the Yin Blade. Confronting Sensei Yang. Breaking that orb and releasing the ghosts. His fault. His fault. His fault. He's all alone. No one knows he's here. No one is coming to rescue him.

He has to fix this.

He takes a deep breath that he doesn't need and stands up. "So," he says to the student left to guard him, "I didn't get your – _oof!_ "

The white-clothed kid shoves him back down. Cole grimaces. "You're sure taking this guarding thing seriously, huh?" he says. "What's your name, again?"

The kid says nothing.

"Okay. I'll call you… how about Chuck? Oh, wait, I don't know what gender you are… hm. Could be Charlie, maybe? That can be short for Charlene, too, so it's pretty gender-neutral."

The kid says nothing.

"Anyway, Chuck, Charlie…" Cole swallows. "I know you were Yang's student once," he says, "but now, you're his prisoner! Don't you see? He's stopping you from moving on!"

The kid says nothing.

"He's probably got you under some sort of spell – you gotta shake it off, Chucklie! Wait, shoot. Chuckles? Hm." Cole shakes his head. "Anyway! You just gotta shake off the spell, and then we can take down Yang together! You, me – and all the other students he's got trapped here!"

The kid says nothing.

"Alright," Cole says. "Well, then I guess we gotta do this the hard way…"


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter was basically half-written when I posted the last chapter so that's why it didn't take as long as the last one. don't expect an update after this for… a while
> 
> pwease comment if u enjoy

Zane isn't sure what to think of his father.

He thinks about it, wandering through the birchwood winter of his childhood. Dr. Julien built him. He raised him. He taught him so many things, both by programming them into his systems and by showing him, taking Zane's hands in his own and instructing him to put blocks on top of each other while his father read the computer output. A test of motor skills, Julien said. From simple tasks such as stacking blocks, to chopping wood when his father's aging body no longer had the strength of his youth. Scientific, methodical.

He built him, he raised him, and then Julien shut off his memories, making Zane forget he was even a robot.

And then Zane found him again, and they lived together, and they loved each other – didn't they? Zane thought it was normal, that his memories were erased. What else would Julien have done? He just wanted to spare him the grief of losing his father, didn't he? It wasn't as if Zane was a normal human.

Pixal thought differently.

She didn't look through his memories, of course, just as Zane did not look into hers. But there were some that they shared with each other, and the stark difference between how Julien treated Zane and how Borg treated Pixal could not be ignored. Zane replays the memories Pixal allowed him to make copies of, and watches.

In this one, Borg is reading to her – there is only audio, as Pixal is not yet sophisticated enough to have a robot body. "Did you like the story?" he asks.

Pixal struggles with the question. "Was I supposed to?"

"Oh, no, not necessarily."

"Was I supposed to dislike it?"

"No, no, Pixal –" Borg laughs. "This isn't a test! You are free to like or dislike it as you please. It's very important that you make your own decisions. Do you want me to read another one?"

In this one, Pixal is hooked up to a webcam, and she can see Borg as he squints at the computer screen. "Now, Pixal," he says, "can you show me a cat? Excellent, that's a very nice picture… Pixal, I'm going to be a bit silly for a moment. Can you show me yourself?"

Pixal displays an image of the drive her files are stored on.

"Hm. That's accurate, I suppose, but not quite what I had in mind. I should phrase it differently. Pixal, when I build you a physical body, what do you want it to look like?"

Pixal thinks very hard about the question, her fans beginning to whirr, and after a few seconds – many, many milliseconds, the longest she has taken to create an image – the image she displays causes Borg's eyes to widen. "Oh! That's…"

"A human," Pixal says. "Like you."

Borg reaches out and touches the screen. "Oh my goodness, Pixal… you gave yourself a wheelchair, you didn't need to do that, I'm not going to build you legs you can't use… Pixal, Pixal…" His voice catches. "Oh my goodness…"

"Did I do something wrong?" Pixal asks.

"No! No, never." Borg rubs his eyes, and grins. "I must ask, though… this model is of a human woman. I did not program you with a specific gender in mind. Do you think of yourself as female?"

Pixal hesitates for a tenth of a second. "I don't know," she says. "This is… what I would want to look like."

"Marvelous! You are marvelous, Pixal, did you know? A marvelous young woman, or man, or whoever you wish to be. I am proud to have helped create you."

"But you did create me."

"Oh no, I may have started the process, but you're the one who's learning and growing and changing – I am so, so proud of you, Pixal."

In this one… Pixal's memory is hazy. Her vision is flickering. She takes a step back, her balance thrown off, her mind struggling to process the minuscule corrections to keep herself upright. Borg is yelling her name. "Pixal?! Pixal?! Are you alright? Pixal, Pixal, please –"

It takes her a full second to regain her senses. "Borg," she says. "What happened? Was I shut down? Why are you on the floor?"

Borg is crying. Pixal has never seen him cry before, but she knows what crying is, has enough data to know what the water running down his face mean. Pixal knows she has to help him – this is what she is built for, isn't it? To be his assistant. She moves to him and bends down to pick him up, return him to his artificial limbs, and is unprepared for when he throws his arms around her.

"I'm sorry," he says, his body trembling with sobs. "I'm so sorry, Pixal, this is all my fault, I'm sorry, I'm sorry…"

"Why are you apologizing?" Pixal asks.

"I've made a horrible mistake – the Overlord, he –"

"I do not know what you're talking about," Pixal says without thinking. She pauses, goes back through her internal log to confirm that she did not think about it, as if it were an automatic response. "I do not know what you're talking about," she repeats, more slowly, just to confirm it.

"It's – it's okay, Pixal, you don't have to know. It's going to be okay, I…" Borg takes a shuddering breath. "I want to tell you something, Pixal. Will you listen?"

"Of course."

Borg shifts his position so that he's looking her in the eyes, one hand on her cheek. "I want you to know that I love you very much," he says, "and I… you are more than my assistant, Pixal, more than my creation, even. You are my daughter, and I –" He inhales sharply, his face twisted in grief. "I failed as your father. I should never have let anything hurt you. I'm so sorry, Pixal, I…"

He breaks down into sobs, squeezing his eyes shut as more tears leak out. Pixal does not know what to do. She does not have enough data, and as she runs her diagnostics, it's become clear that her systems are compromised, if only slightly.

She hugs him.

"I love you too, Father."

Zane replays her words, over and over. _I love you too, Father._ Had Zane ever said those words to his father? He knows he has, the memories are stored in his systems – but has he _meant_ them? Has Dr. Julien ever been more than the person who built him?

He wanders the snowy landscape, and he thinks.

"What's the matter, _brother?_ "

Zane freezes.

He knows that voice, that distorted parody of his own. Zane turns around and faces the Overlord's nindroid general, and though his expression is hidden by his hood, Zane can tell Cryptor is grinning.

"Surprised to see me?" Cryptor says. "Did you think you could forget about me? Hide me away where no one could find me?"

"Why are you here?" Zane says.

He laughs. "We share the same memories, don't you know? This is _my_ father's home, too."

Cryptor is holding a weapon, a golden staff that bares some reseblance to a technoblade. Zane's eyes flick to it, then back to meet Cryptor's gaze. "You may be my clone," Zane says, "but our paths are very different. Your programming was too badly warped by the Overlord to be rebooted, even with the technoblades. Borg told me you were unable to be saved. Why are you here now?"

"Unable to be saved?" Cryptor isn't grinning anymore. "Unable to be _repurposed_ is more like it. Cyrus Borg only wanted to use me for his own purposes."

"And the Overlord was different… how?"

Cryptor doesn't answer that question. "I was given a chance to live again," he says, and he begins to approach Zane, his footsteps crunching in the snow. "All I have to do is take another's place in the living world."

Zane takes out his sword and drops into a stance, remembering all the lessons Wu taught him that his father didn't. "If you're looking for a fight –"

"Oh, I won't take _your_ place."

Movement behind him. Zane looks over his shoulder.

Two other nindroids have a child held between them, dressed in what must have been a lovingly hand-sewn costume of Morro's ghost form. The child's wig is askew, and their blonde hair is sticking out from underneath. They have tears running down their face, and Zane can tell they're trying not to sob, only a whimper escaping them as the nindroids' grip on their arms tighten.

"Oh, no," Cryptor says. "You're free to walk away. Unless, of course, you don't want me to kill this child."

Zane looks back and forth between Cryptor and the child, and silently asks Pixal to run simulations to predict the best course of action.

* * *

Morro continues texting Skylor as Ronin pilots his mech towards the junkyard. "She's not answering," he says to Ronin. "We need to go to wherever Kai and Nya are first."

"Nah," says Ronin, keeping his eyes on the desert they're stomping through.

"Excuse me?! If Skylor's going over there, and her _dad_ is –"

"If she's going over there, that's three people against one guy. They'll be fine."

"Not necessarily – Kozu had all those stone warriors with him, remember?"

"Hey," Ronin says sharply. "Remember, we need to find that kid, too. Kozu made it sound like something happened to them."

Morro takes a deep breath. "Yes," he says. "You're right. So you think they'll be with Jay, then?"

"I mean, I have no idea, but when it comes to getting information out of Chen compared to literally anyone else, I'll pick weird skeleton guy. Once he tells us what happened, we can go looking."

Even as he nods, Morro can't help but think… what if they're too late? What if something bad has already happened to Alex, and there's nothing they can do? What if the villains win? Sure, Chen is going up against two, maybe three people who are all skilled fighters, but then there's Zane and Cryptor, Lloyd and Pythor, Jay and Samukai, and… and…

There was someone else, right?

"Almost there," Ronin says, interrupting Morro's concentration. "Look alive, kid."

* * *

"Well, if your mom's so great, what if I take her place instead?"

"No!" Jay yells. "I don't want you to be my mom!"

"That's not what that means!"

Jay lunges towards Samukai, only to skid to a stop when the two skeletal henchmen grab his parents. "This is entirely unnecessary!" Edna says sternly, while Ed yelps and attempts to push his assailant away.

Samukai grins. "So you'll give yourself up, right? Otherwise, something real bad might happen to your parents!"

Jay takes a step back, then forward, then bounces side to side, for lack of anywhere to go. "That's playing dirty!" he says.

"What, do you think I'm not serious?" Samukai's grin gets even bigger, which should be impossible, considering he's a skeleton. "Did you think I was joking around? Oh no, no no no, Blue Ninja. If you're not willing to give yourself up, I'll kill one of your parents instead!"

"Dear," Edna says cautiously, "I think he might be serious."

Jay swallows. "I think I figured that out, Ma."

He has to think fast. The skeleton holding his mom isn't doing anything to hurt her – not _yet,_ anyway – but the other one has his dad in what is rapidly approaching a chokehold. Samukai is just standing there grinning, but Jay is too afraid to approach him, lest he commands his henchmen to – Jay doesn't want to think about it.

"Well?" Samukai says. "What will it be?"

"Uh…" Jay's eyes dart around the junkyard. There's got to be something he can do! "Uh," he says, "can I have a few more moments to stall – I mean, uh –"

Samukai motions to his henchmen. Jay's heart skips a beat. "No!" he screams, and he runs forward, charging his lightning powers as the skeleton presses their arm against his dad's throat, and –

The ground shakes with a _thud thud thud,_ and it takes a moment for Jay to recognize Rex, Ronin's mech-slash-airship-slash-whatever he's configured it to be that day. Rex jumps over the gate and, in one quick motion, scoops Ed and Edna up in one mechanical hand. "Got them!" Ronin says through the speakers. "Get ready, kid!"

"Ready for –"

The speakers cut out before the other voice can finish. The hatch opens, and Ronin shoves Morro out, where he lands in a heap on the ground.

Jay and Samukai both stare. Not even the two other skeletons can find it within themselves to react.

"What just happened?" Samukai asks. 

Morro picks himself off the ground. "You!" he says, pointing at Samukai. "Where's Alex?!"

"Who's Alex?" Jay says, then shakes his head and raises his voice. "And what are you _doing_ here?!"

"Did you want to share Jay after all?" Samukai asks. "Because I don't really want to let you. Hey, henchmen! Get him!"

He needs to act now. His parents are safe with Ronin, and Jay doesn't really care if Morro is held as a hostage. His hands spark with his elemental power, and he directs a bolt of lightning towards Samukai – not strong enough to do any real damage, but strong enough to cause a yelp of pain as Samukai drops his axe.

"Wait!" Morro yells, in the middle of kicking a skeleton in the face. "Ask him where the kid is!"

Jay chases Samukai away from his axe with more lightning bolts, cornering him between two piles of junk. "Shoot first, questions later!"

"No! Ask him now!" Morro grits his teeth and twists the head off one of the skeletons. The mannequin goes limp and crumples in a pile of bones. "There was a kid with me! Something happened to them! Ask him where they are!"

Jay groans. "Fine! Fine, fine, fine – hey, Samukai! Where's Alex?"

"I'm not telling you!" Samukai yelps, his back presses against an old refrigerator. "Why should I?"

"Tell me and I'll let you take my place."

"Oh really? The kid went with the Cryptor guy. Dunno what happened after that."

"Great," says Jay, and he zaps the pile of junk, sending electricity surging through the metal. The pile groans, and Samukai has barely enough time to look up before a steal beam crushes him.

Jay coughs as the dust settles. "He better be dead for real now," he says. "As for _you_ –"

Morro brushes off the costume he's wearing. "I already put these ones to rest," he says as Jay approaches him. "Thanks for your help. I'm going to go now."

"No!" Jay says. "You're not!"

He grabs Morro's shawl and pulls his head down so their faces are at the same level. "What did you _do?_ " Jay demands. "Did you make these guys come after me?!"

Morro glares at him, and Jay's confidence peters out. Dressed like this, Morro looks too much like he did as a ghost, bringing back all those memories of fighting down fear as Lloyd looks at him with a grin that's so, so out of place on his friend's face – but thinking of _that_ just makes him angry, and he yanks harder on the shawl.

"I didn't do anything!" Morro says. "Let go of me!"

"No! You must have something to do with this! Why else would these _ghosts_ be coming back –"

"I don't have anything more to do with ghosts anymore!"

"Yeah right! I knew your apologies were all fake! I bet you haven't changed at all!"

Morro shoves him hard. Jay lets go and stumbles back. He clenches his fists, feeling the electricity tingling through his body, and –

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Ronin jumps out of his mech and runs over. "Calm down, both of you!"

" _I am calm!_ " Morro screams.

Jay sucks in air through his teeth and dismisses his powers. "Okay," he says. "Okay. I'm calm. We're all calm here. Now _tell me what's going on!_ "

Ronin puts himself between them and blocks Morro when he tries to step around. "What happened was that someone summoned a bunch of ghosts to possess the mannequins in the Hall of Villainy," he says. "That someone wasn't Morro, alright? So cool it."

"Cooling it" is the opposite of what Jay wants to do, but he's not willing to get in a fight with Morro and Ronin both. Jay frowns. "So are there other bad guys going after my buds?" he asks.

Ronin nods and speaks before Morro can say anything. "Chen's going after Kai and Nya, Pythor's going after Lloyd, and Cryptor's going after Zane."

"If Cryptor has Alex, we need to find Zane," Morro says. "We can't waste any more time here."

"Where's Cole?" Jay asks.

Ronin blinks. "I, uh… don't know."

"What do you mean, you don't know?!" Jay yelps. "Cole's my best bud! Who's going after him?!"

"I don't remember," Morro says. "I'm not sure…"

Jay doesn't want to hear it. "I'm going to find him," he says, and he runs right by his worried parents. "Ma, I'm borrowing your car!"

"Borrow your dad's instead!" Edna calls back.

"No, dear, I just cleaned it –"

Ronin clears his throat and gives Morro a hard pat on the back. "C'mon," he says. "I'll drop you off at Zane's. I should probably make sure Lloyd's alright."

"Yes," Morro says. "Right. Let's go."


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HEY WHAT'S UP I GOTTA FINISH THIS SOON SO I CAN START COINVERSE SEASON 7! I've got like the first 3 chapters of it written already and im still not done with this lmao
> 
> warnings for this chapter: some allusions to / discussions of abuse.

"Skylor's _what?!_ " Kai yells.

Nya glances behind her at Chen's dinosaur mech. "She's on her way," she says, barely loud enough to carry over the sounds of their car engines. "She said Morro told her what was happening, and she was coming to help."

"Morro? Does he have something to do with this?"

"I really doubt any ghosts want anything to do with him after –"

One of the faux-anacondrai ghosts slams the side of their car into Nya's own. She yelps, gripping the steering wheel and struggling to regain control of her car, then grits her teeth and returns the favor, pushing the anacondrai into the path of a tree. She cringes at the sound of the crash, and looks back to see the ghost rising up into the sky.

"One down!" she calls to Kai.

"We need to get rid of Chen!" he yells back. "Before –"

A missile explodes just behind Kai's car and sends it flipping forward. Kai hits the ground and rolls, while Nya swerves her car around and screeches to a stop between him and the approaching Chen.

"One down!" Chen says gleefully.

"I'm not dead!" Kai yells back.

"Eh, you will be soon enough." Chen pushes more buttons on his chair and it stomps forward, brandishing a chainsaw. Nya revs her engine.

A burst of flame stops Chen in his tracks, and his chair takes a few steps back to protect its rider. Nya looks back at Kai, who shakes his head. "Wasn't me," he says.

More fire shoots towards Chen, and this time, Nya can tell where it's coming from.

Nya's eyes follow the stream to its source, red flames illuminating red hair in the evening dark, a familiar face twisted with anger. Skylor runs forward with one of her hands set alight, glaring at her father.

"Get away from them," she snarls.

"Oh!" said Chen brightly. "If it isn't my lovely daughter whom I love! Are you here to repair our relationship after you betrayed me?"

The flames in her hand flare brighter.

"I said, get away from them!"

Chen's face falls into a frown. "Ah," he says. "I see how it is. No love left for your dear father?"

Skylor's eyes widen. Her flames start to sputter and waver. Nya can't keep watching this.

There's no point trying to talk to Chen; Nya acts instead. She slams her foot on the gas pedal and rockets her car towards the other ghost cultist; they're clearly distracted, and she manages to catch them by surprise. Grabbing her sword, she brakes hard and lunges at them, slicing through the head of the mannequin. The ghost shrieks as they rise, flailing as they tumble up and up into the sky. Nya watches them until they disappear, then turns back to where she left the others.

Horror grips her as she sees Chen's chair stomping towards Skylor, who has fallen to her knees.

She rushes back to her vehicle, but Kai is closer – "Hey!" Nya hears him shout. "You stay back! You don't get to have anything to do with Skylor anymore!"

Chen laughs. "I think that's up to her to decide, hm? Why don't you leave us alone for a minute."

"It's three against one, Chen!" Nya says, driving back to Kai, who jumps on the back of her car. "I'd say the odds aren't in your favor."

"So confident! What if it isn't three against one, hm? I think two against two is a much fairer fight!"

Skylor speaks. "I'm not joining you."

"Oh! So cold!" Chen grins and his chair takes another step towards Skylor. "Well, that's okay. I only need to take the place of one other person to keep my place in the living world, after all!"

"Don't you dare!" Nya yells, and she hits the gas so hard Kai almost falls off the car. Her plan is only half-formed, but she can't let Chen do this to Skylor, can't let him ruin her life just by _existing_ –

Her car slows to a stop. Nya presses the gas again. It doesn't move.

"Don't jump to conclusions!" Chen says. "I'm not going to take my own daughter's life, oh no! I love her!"

Skylor shakes her head, but says nothing.

"Yeah," says Kai, "I was really feeling the love when you used her powers to cast that spell, even when it could've killed her. On my dad rankings, you're coming in last."

"But did she die? No!"

"You're a monster!" Nya snaps. "I'm not going to just sit here and listen to this!"

The car is useless; Nya jumps out with Kai and tries to run forward, but it feels like she's running through sludge. Her legs move so slowly, and when she looks back at Kai, he's struggling in the same way. What's going on? Is Chen doing something? Nya didn't think he had any powers –

– but Skylor does.

"Skylor!" Nya shouts. "What are you doing?!"

Skylor takes a deep, shuddering breath.

"I need to face him alone," she says.

"Oh hell no you don't!" Kai says immediately. "He's not worth that!"

"Skylor, please!" Nya cries. "You don't need to do this, not after how he's hurt you! Skylor, Skylor –"

"You don't understand," Skylor says. "He's my father. I owe him this respect."

"You really, really don't," Kai says.

Chen speaks up. "Are you done talking yet? We have places to go, things to do, and if you're not going to help me kill Kai or Nya, dear daughter, then we need to find someone else to take the place of!"

"I'm not going to help you kill anyone,"

"Eh?"

Skylor gets to her feet. Nya still can't move; if she had to guess, she'd say Skylor is doing something with the element of speed, slowing down all of Kai and Nya's motions. As she watches helplessly, Skylor approaches Chen, her hands crackling with electricity.

"Three against one isn't a fair fight," Skylor says. "I think one on one is much more reasonable."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Chen jabs at his chair's controls and it staggers backwards. "I don't want to hurt you, Skylor, and you definitely don't want to hurt me, right?"

"You don't want to hurt me?" Skylor sends a bolt of lightning through the chair, causing Chen to yelp in pain and the chair to spasm and shut down. "After everything you've done to me, _now_ things are different?"

Chen frantically presses buttons, but his chair refuses to respond. "Of course, of course!" he says. "Why don't we sit down and talk about it, before taking drastic measures, eh?"

"I'm not interested in talking to you." The next elemental power Skylor calls upon is water, a ball of it hovering between her hands. "I never want to see you again. Goodbye, father."

"Wait!" Chen yells. "Skylor, daughter, please! I don't want to go back to the Cursed Realm!"

Skylor freezes.

Chen keeps talking. "Don't you know what it's like down there? It's horrible, horrible! Nothing left but water – and you know how ghosts are with water! It burns, it burns, it's so cold – I can't go back there! I just need to kill one person, just one, and then I'll leave you alone, I promise!"

"Since when have you kept your promises?" Skylor says quietly.

"I've kept _some_ promises! I'll definitely keep this one!"

He sounds terrified. Nya remembers – he never told them what it was like in the Cursed Realm after she drowned the Preeminent, but when Morro was first resurrected, he had nights where he woke up screaming. Water destroys ghosts, but if there was nowhere else to go…

"Skylor, _please!_ "

What is she supposed to do?

* * *

Pythor slides out of the way of Lloyd's attack and slithers towards Garmadon. "It looks like you're much more fragile, after all that time in the Cursed Realm," Pythor says, raising his staff. "Took a few years off your lifespan, didn't it?"

"Get away from him!" Lloyd sends bolts of energy at Pythor, which all miss – he forces himself to pause, to take time to aim, and Pythor has to jerk backwards to avoid getting hit by Lloyd's elemental power.

"Lloyd," Garmadon says, "don't worry about me. I can take care of myself."

He puts a hand on the chair to steady himself and points his cane at Pythor.

"Oh, can you really?" Pythor says. "Shall we put that to the – ack!"

Garmadon pulls the cane back and slams it into Pythor's throat again. Pythor shrinks back, gripping his own staff and coughing. "Didn't expect that," he says weakly. "Maybe they can teach old dogs new tricks."

Lloyd puts himself between Pythor and Garmadon, facing the serpentine. "Leave us alone," he says, his voice low and dangerous, his hands crackling with energy.

"Well, you don't have to be so rude about it," Pythor says. "Fine, then. I'll go."

Lloyd blinks. "Really?"

"What can I say? I'm already alive. The ghosts are the one who need to take someone's place. I'm just here for fun." Pythor turns away. "I'll be seeing you around, Lloyd Garmadon!"

And with that, Pythor leaves, slithering over the edge of the bounty and dropping to the ground with an _oof!_

Lloyd stares at where he was for a long time, barely noticing when Garmadon puts a hand on his shoulder. "Lloyd, you should sit back down."

"What if he comes back?" Lloyd finds himself saying. "We – we should go inside."

"I think –"

"Lloyd!" Misako sticks her head out the door. "I tried to call the others, but no one picked up! Are you alright?"

"Mom!" Lloyd manages a shaky smile. "Yeah, he's gone now, but – let's go inside, I –"

"I'd rather stay outside, Lloyd," Garmadon says.

Lloyd looks at him, then back to Misako, who's lips are pressed together in a hard line.

"Don't be like this," she says. "If Pythor comes back –"

"I can take care of myself, Misako."

"Are you that sure of yourself, Garmadon? You're know you're not the man you used to be."

"I'm not a lot of things I used to be, but I'm certainly still capable."

"Well –"

"What's going on?" says Lloyd.

Misako and Garmadon stop talking. Lloyd looks back and forth between them. "Are you guys okay?" he asks. "I mean… you don't usually fight like this."

Garmadon sighs. "Lloyd," he says. "There's… something we need to talk about."

Lloyd shakes his head. "No, it can wait. I need to make sure my friends are okay, too."

"That's a good idea," Misako says, a little too quickly. "Go on, Lloyd. Your father and I will be here when you get back."

* * *

Charlie doesn't let Cole past without a fight. Neither do any of the other ghosts. Cole can almost feel the ache in his bones when he finally reaches the attic. "I'm coming for you, Yang!" he shouts, pulling himself up the ladder and pointing his sword. "And you don't have any more of your students to hide behind – you're all alone!"

Yang smirks, facing him with the Yin Blade. "That's where you're wrong," he says. "I am not alone."

More students jump out of their hiding places, rushing towards Cole. He grits his teeth and drops into a fighting stance. "What, too afraid to face me on your own?" he snaps.

"Too busy!" says Yang. "The eclipse is beginning to fade, and I have no intention of fading with it. Goodbye, Cole."

He gestures to his students and walks out onto the roof. Cole tries to follow him, but he's quickly blocked off by the white-robed children. "Dammit!" he swears. "Get out of my way!"

They don't listen.

Every time he knocks one down, they get back up and charge him again. Ghosts don't get tired in the same way living people do – Cole is acutely aware that they could be doing this for a long, long time, and time is something he doesn't have a lot of.

He kicks them back, over and over. One falls down the ladder he just climbed up – Cole kicks that down, too. "You guys are more tiresome than Jay!" he says. "Man, I can't wait to see him again!"

Because he _will_ see Jay again, Cole tells himself. Jay and Kai, Zane, Lloyd, Nya – all of them! He's not going to let some old ghost take away what's left of the life he has!

He won't be forgotten.

He can't be forgotten.

His friends will deal with their ghosts and then they'll be coming to help him.

Cole is sure of it.

* * *

The woods are covered in snow this time of year. Morro's stolen costume was not meant for actual wear, and is inadequate at keeping out the cold. He runs to keep himself warm, his breath fogging in the air as he calls out – "Alex? Zane? Anyone?"

He hears voices. Morro slows down to listen.

"And what would you do if you were alive?" Zane is saying. "Would you bring back your old master?"

"I don't need the Overlord." That's Cryptor's voice. "You say that as if I can't function without him."

"It doesn't have to be this way. Nindroids don't die the way humans do. Borg could –"

"I want nothing to do with Cyrus Borg," Cryptor snaps. "And you are _stalling._ Answer me now, Zane. Will you give yourself up? Or will you allow this child to die?"

A chill grips his heart. No. No. No. Morro starts running again, towards the voices, catches sight of the possessed mannequins through the trees, sees the small figure being held in place –

"Get away from them!" he screeches.

The two nindroid ghosts have no time to react. Morro crashes into one of them and they both drop Alex. The other nindroid tries to grab them again – Morro sends a strong burst of wind that knocks the robot into a snowdrift.

The nindroid he's on top of punches him in the gut. Morro gasps in pain and punches right back. His fist aches with the blow and doesn't leave any visible damage. He punches again, again, hot rage pumping through him, a scream escaping his throat –

"Morro!"

He looks up at Zane's call and sees Cryptor advancing towards Alex, who is huddled in a heap in the snow. Morro scrambles to his feet and runs to put himself between Cryptor and the kid. His skin is hot in the cold air, his breaths come fast and hard, and sweat sticks strands of hair to his forehead.

Cryptor stops. "You again," he says.

"Leave," Morro says, his voice miraculously steady. "Your time in the living world ended long ago."

"One could say the same for you."

Morro grits his teeth. He's not going to let Cryptor get under his skin, he tells himself.

"Even if that's the case…" Cryptor steps closer. "Your life might still work just as well!"

He swings his scepter into Morro's side.

Morro staggers sideways, falls to his knees. He can hear Alex screaming. Morro wants to tell them he's fine, might not even leave a bruise, but his vision is going funny, the landscape moving around him even though he's keeping his head still – and he can hear other voices, echoing in his mind.

_morro_

"No," he croaks out.

_morro, come back_

"I can't –"

_stay with us_

"I can't go back –"

_suffer with us_

"I don't want to go back to her –"

_you don't deserve the life you've been given_

Morro's resurrection is him clinging to the lifeline that pulled him out of the Cursed Realm, but he's still dangling above that hell. If he dies, he'll go back to the drowned Preeminent, back to the water destroying his form over and over while he wails and reaches for the dim light from the surface – he can't go back. He can't do it again.

Through his shaking vision, he can see Cryptor pulling the scepter back for another blow. Despite his brain screaming at him to _MOVE_ , he's frozen. All he can think is that he can't go back there, God, no, no, he wants to keep his friends, his family, his _dad_ –

The blow never comes. His vision wavers, steadies. Morro takes a shuddering breath and looks up.

Zane's eyes are green, which is weird, because Morro was fairly certain they used to be blue. He's got a grip on Cryptor's arm, and with a hard pull, he flips Cryptor over his head and drops him hard on the snowy ground.

"You said you knew Zane's every move."

The voice that speaks isn't Zane's.

"Can you say the same for mine?" Pixal says.

That's right, Morro thinks. He has a sister now, too.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I Think there's only three more chapters, but it's hard to tell. man, I need to get this wrapped up Soon. can you imagine this was gonna be a oneshot? ridiculous.

Nya can't stop fighting. She keeps pushing against the invisible force slowing her town, taking step after slow step towards Skylor and Chen. "Skylor!" she yells. "Skylor, what are you doing?"

Chen isn't making any move to get out of his damaged chair; he's still frantically pressing buttons, as if it'll come back to life and carry him away. "I can't go back to the Cursed Realm, I can't, I can't! Skylor, please! All you have to do is say you'll let me go, and I'll never bother you again!"

"I…" Skylor's hands are shaking. "You're lying. You've always lied."

"Of course he's lying!" Kai says loudly. "That's basically his thing!"

Skylor flinches. Chen is still babbling, promising to leave Skylor alone, never to hurt her again, and Nya knows nothing she says to him will make him change.

She blinks, and the answer makes itself clear.

"Skylor," she says. "It's okay. You can let him go."

Skylor whips her head around to stare at her. "What?"

"What?!" Kai yelps.

"Shut up, Kai." Nya raises her voice. "It's okay, Skylor! It's – it's your decision, alright? But –" She hesitates. "– you don't have to let him go, either. I mean – God, I'm not saying this right. Skylor, if you want me to get rid of him, and – and to do everything I can to make sure he never, _ever_ comes back, just – let me know, and I'll do it."

"Skylor, don't!" Chen shouts. "Skylor, daughter, please let me go! Skylor –"

Skylor squeezes her eyes shut.

"I don't want him here," she whispers. "Please, Nya – make him go away."

Just like that, the force holding her back is lifted. Nya runs forward a few steps, then raises her hands and sends a powerful jet of water at Chen – strong enough to kill him even if he wasn't a ghost. Sustaining the pressure saps the energy from her, and when she's done, she's out of breath.

All that's left of Chen is a headless mannequin.

Nya staggers to the side, takes a step forward, then another, step after step until she reaches Skylor's side. "Hey," she says, quietly taking her hand. "It's okay. He's gone now."

Skylor sobs and falls into Nya's arms. Nya hugs her as she cries, feeling her girlfriend's body shake. Kai goes to Chen's mannequin and crouches next to it, presumably to make sure it's inanimate once more. He stares at it for a long time before letting out a deep sigh.

"Well, he's gone," he says. "God, Skylor, I'm sorry you had to go through that."

Skylor takes a shuddering breath. "He – he did keep some of his promises," she whispers. "What if – what if he would've –"

"Shh." Nya rubs her back. "It's okay. You don't have to think about him any more. I don't know what brought him here, but I'll make sure he never comes back, alright?"

"You can't always control it," Skylor whispers. "Sometimes it's like he's in my head. Sometimes I'm twelve years old again, or seventeen, or eight, or twenty – he's always there. And –" She hiccups. "– I knew he didn't love me, but it was so easy to pretend, sometimes! When he said he was proud of me, and – he promised to always call me his daughter, and he always did, like I was never his son in the first place –"

"Wait, what?" says Kai.

Skylor goes stiff in Nya's arms.

"It's okay," Nya says. "You don't have to tell him, but it's okay if you do. Kai's good with that sort of stuff."

She relaxes, just a little. "You tell him," she mumbles into Nya's shoulder. "I can't – words are hard."

Nya nods and turns her head to Kai. "Skylor's trans," she says. "A trans woman, I mean."

She leaves it at that. She knows Kai will be accepting, after all.

"Oh," Kai says. "That's… oh. I mean, it's fine, obviously – I'm trans, too! Not a woman, though, that's – I'm a guy. Fuck, I shouldn't make this about me, I just –"

"It's fine," Skylor says. She straightens up and rubs her eyes. "You need to find the rest of the ninja. They're in danger too."

"Oh, shit!" Kai digs his phone out of his pocket. "Okay – Jay texted the group chat. He's alright, but he's kinda freaked out. Apparently Samukai attacked him and threatened his parents, but it's dealt with now." His phone buzzes in his hand. "Lloyd's alright! He's heading to the museum. Nothing from Zane yet. Jay's gonna head to the museum, too, we should meet them there."

Nya hesitates. "Skylor, I really don't want to leave you alone like this, but…"

"I'll come with you," Skylor says. "Someone must've brought my father back. I want to find out why."

* * *

Pixal wasn't built for fighting. She's certainly picked up some things while being part of his systems, Zane thinks, but the fact of the matter is she wasn't programmed to defend herself, and she rarely takes control of his body.

Even if Cryptor can't predict her actions, Zane doesn't think Pixal can win this fight alone.

He knows Pixal well enough to know that she knows this, too. Zane appears in her vision, like she normally appears in his. "Pixal," he says. "What do you want me to do?"

Cryptor attacks before she can respond.

His fist hits Pixal hard in the shoulder, throwing her off balance. The programming that kept her balanced in her own body isn't made for Zane's, and she tips over and hits the ground hard.

Distorted laughter fills their audio sensors. "You're right," Cryptor says. "I didn't know you'd be this easy to defeat!"

Pixal gets to her feet and takes a step back. "Morro," she says, "take the child and go."

"I'm not leaving you here!" Morro shouts from behind her.

Pixal doesn't look back at him – she can't risk taking her eyes off Cryptor. "I am not going to argue. Take the child to safety. If you wish, you may return afterwards."

"But –"

"Morro, don't argue with me."

He relents. "Fine!" he says. "I'll – I'll come back!"

Pixal and Zane hear shuffling in the snow behind them, feel the burst of wind as Morro uses Airjitzu to carry the child away. Cryptor growls.

"You seem to have forgotten that I am not alone," he says, as the other possessed mannequins step out from behind him. "Cyrus Borg programmed you with the ability to predict the most likely outcome, didn't he? What are the chances of you winning this fight?"

They aren't good, Zane thinks. They need to come up with a plan.

"Pixal," he says. "We need to get to higher ground. Can you use Airjitzu?"

Pixal hesitates for half a second before saying, "Yes."

Her technique is sloppy, but it gets her aloft, and she lands on a sturdy branch. _What now?_ she thinks – Zane wasn't supposed to hear that thought, he realizes, and he pulls his mind away. It's not easy, trying to monitor his own systems while they're in control of someone else. Zane rapidly runs through scenarios in his head. If they do this –

"You are using an awful lot of processing power," Pixal says.

"Sorry, I'm not used to –"

Cryptor's two sidekicks appear on either side of them – Pixal and Zane are both confused for a moment before they process the jetpacks. _Keep going up,_ Pixal thinks, and she ascends with Airjitzu to a higher branch.

Cryptor is already waiting for her. "You're weak," he taunts. "You weren't built for fighting like I was – do you remember, Pixal? You were the one who designed me!"

"My father built me to learn," Pixal says, "and I can learn to fight."

"Cyrus Borg built you to learn," Cryptor repeats. "Dr. Julien built Zane to protect. You built me to kill."

He lunges forward. Pixal blocks – sloppy technique, again, Zane thinks, and he feels Pixal's annoyance prickling at him. She sends a kick into Cryptor's side, and he sends her falling off the branch. She catches herself on a lower one and quickly moves to where the branch meets the trunk. _It's more stable here,_ Pixal thinks. Zane pulls out of her thoughts once more.

"What should we do?" he asks.

"Don't ask," Pixal says, her eyes on Cryptor as he lands on the branch in front of her. "Act."

"You don't understand. Pixal –" Zane hesitates. "– I don't know what to do."

Pixal has no sympathy. "Figure something out."

She keeps her back to the tree and watches Cryptor carefully. He doesn't make a move to attack, and neither do the other two ghosts. An idea pops into Zane's head; if they stall long enough, Morro will come back, and then Pixal won't have to fight on her own.

Anger burns through Pixal's systems and she strikes forward.

Cryptor doesn't react in time, and the punch lands hard on his chest. The material depresses beneath Pixal's fist, and with the burst of confidence, she strikes again with a second punch that hits Cryptor in the face.

While he's stumbling back, she senses his sidekicks swooping towards her and flips up, calling on Airjitzu to take her higher. She dismisses it while she's still in the air and lands hard on one of their jetpacks. She jumps up while the robot careens out of control and crashes into a tree, and she sees their ghost rising into the sky.

"Still think I can't handle myself?" Pixal says.

Zane has a feeling she's not talking to Cryptor.

* * *

Alex is shivering. Morro doesn't rest until he reaches Ninjago City, where he goes into a fast food joint to get out of the cold. He thinks of Pixal; will she be alright? Of course she will, he tells himself. Even if she wasn't capable, Zane is there, too, and it's not like the ninja lost against the nindroids the first time. Morro can take the time to make sure Alex is alright.

"Do you want anything to eat?" he asks.

Alex whimpers and buries their face in Morro's shoulder. "I want my mom."

Morro stands there, holding the kid in the middle of the restaurant, until Alex mumbles, "Chicken nuggets."

He gets chicken nuggets. The person at the counter barely acknowledges him beyond taking his order and giving him his food. Morro supposes he should be grateful; he doesn't want more attention tonight.

While Alex eats, Morro takes out his phone. He has some texts from Skylor, which he reads through quickly – "I'm alright. My father's gone." – before moving on to the texts from his dad.

< Morro, are you alright?  
< There were some worrying events on the news, and I want to make sure you're okay.  
< Please text me back as soon as you can.

im okay. >  
ill be home late. >

Cyrus texts back immediately.

< Please come home now. I've been worried sick for hours.

there's stuff i need to do >  
ill tell you when im home >

His phone starts ringing. Morro silences the call.

"Do you have your mom's phone number?" he asks Alex.

Alex slowly nods. "Yeah. Um, it's here."

They dig through their pockets and hand Morro a folded index card with a phone number written on it. Morro takes a deep breath. Cyrus has stopped calling him, and is instead sending stern texts, so he isn't interrupted when he dials the number.

"Who is this?" says the voice on the other end.

Morro's heart is pounding. "Um," he says. "I found your kid."

"Alex?! I've been looking all over – are they alright? What happened? Where are you?"

"They're fine, um…" Morro has commanded an army of the undead and served under the Preeminent herself, and yet, the idea of meeting Alex's mom is more frightening than anything he's ever been through. "We're at a burger place right now, I'll give you the address…"

He has to ask one of the employees for the address, and then the employee has to look it up on their phone. "I'm on my way," Alex's mom says. "Can you let Alex know I'm coming?"

"Yes, of course."

"Thank you so much – I'll be there soon."

Morro hangs up and takes another deep breath before sitting down with Alex again. "Your mom's on her way, alright?" he says to them. "I'll wait with you, okay?"

"Okay," Alex says. They've finished their nuggets and are currently dipping their finger into the barbecue sauce and licking it off. Morro wrinkles his nose, but he eats sugar packets with the paper, so he can't really say anything.

Morro correctly identifies Alex's mom as the flustered woman tripping over her feet as she runs through the doors. Alex does, too. "Mom!" they cry, jumping to their feet.

"Alex!" The woman completely ignores Morro and rushes to her child. "What happened?! You were supposed to be back at the house hours ago!"

"I'm sorry, Mom, I wanted to visit you at the museum, but then there were a bunch of weird people, and I missed the concert and – and –"

Alex bursts into tears. "Oh no, honey," their mom says, and she slides into the seat next to them to hug them. "I'm not angry, I was just really scared, after what I saw on the news – you weren't anywhere near those stone warriors, were you?"

"Um," Morro says.

She turns to him and yelps. "Oh! Oh dear, sorry, you just have a really, _really_ realistic costume. My name's Lydia – you were the one who called me, right?"

"Yes," Morro says. "There's some things I need to tell you about. Alex saw we had the same costume, and we were trick or treating together for a while, but…"

As he explains what happened, Lydia's eyes grow wider and wider, and she covers her mouth in alarm when he tells her about the mannequins coming to life. "I tried to leave with Alex," he says, "but… one of them grabbed them. I don't know what happened while we were separated, but they don't look hurt –"

"You let my child be _kidnapped?_ " Lydia exclaims.

"I'm sorry, I…" Morro swallows hard. "I went everywhere trying to find them – I just… there were a lot of mannequins, and I could only follow one at a time. I never meant for anything bad to happen, I just…"

He trails off. Lydia runs her eyes up and down, his costume to his face.

"Who are you?" she asks.

Morro stands up and leaves.

* * *

His head is buzzing. He doesn't know where to go. Morro wanders the city aimlessly, forgetting about Pixal and Cryptor, trying to forget what he's done. He's destroyed a city, he was going to do worse, he's tried to kill Lloyd, Kai, and all the rest of the ninja… and putting Alex in danger seems a thousand times worse than any of that.

The look on Lydia's face as she realized who he was –

Morro finds himself at Ronin's pawn shop. The door is locked. He goes around and tries the back door, which is also locked, so he lowers himself to the ground next to the dumpster and buries his face in his hands.

Life was easier when he was dead.

There was no guilt back then; Morro didn't care about the people he hurt, not with the depths of his own pain. He wanted the world to suffer like he had. Maybe it still could; wouldn't it be so easy, to hurt and hurt and hurt without caring? He was going back to the Cursed Realm when he died, after all. The life he had wasn't going to last. Why try to apologize? Why try to be good?

His phone buzzes.

< Morro, you can't keep ignoring me.  
< You need to call me right now or I'm going to call a search party.

With trembling hands, he goes into his contacts and hits his dad's number.

Cyrus answers right away. "Morro, what are you _doing?_ We've talked about this! You can't just –  where are you? Are you safe? Do you need to be picked up?"

Morro opens his mouth, hesitates, and says, "No one died at Stiix, right?"

"…no, Morro." Cyrus' voice softens. "The evacuation was successful, and there were no recorded deaths. Are you feeling alright?"

"What if someone had?" Morro twists his hand in his costume, grabs a fistful of fabric. "What if I had killed people? Would you still love me?"

"Morro, you've grown a lot since you were… well." Cyrus clears his throat. "If someone had died at Stiix, I know how… how horrible you would feel. I would support you in making amends and moving past it, and I would still love you. You've changed, Morro. You know you have."

"No," Morro says, "I don't know. I don't feel different, not always. What if I'm the same person as the ghost who possessed Lloyd?"

"But you're _not_ –"

"I came the closest to killing Kai," he says. "The only reason I didn't kill him was because Lloyd stopped me – and I was fighting him the whole way. I wanted him dead. I wanted them all dead, I –"

"You're not like that anymore, Morro," Cyrus says. "You've grown so much, and I love you, and I'm so proud of you –"

Morro hangs up.

His phone rings moments later. Morro throws it across the alley. It continues to ring; when he picks it up to turn it off, he finds that the screen has shattered.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry if skylor's coming out seems a little… abrupt? idk the word. I mostly needed her to be Confirmed Trans to set up some plotlines for the next fic, coinverse season seven, and I didn't want to have chen out her or anything like that. so this is what I came up with. I hope it's OK.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> should only be 2 chapters left after this one? hopefully!
> 
> please take note of the updated tags

The second of Cryptor's sidekicks crashes to the ground. Pixal lands on the branch above them and their ghost floats up past her.

"Cryptor," she says, facing him down. "Zane was right. Nindroids don't die the same way humans do."

Cryptor glares at her and adjusts his grip on his scepter. "He'd know that, wouldn't he?"

"You don't have to do this. I can rebuild you." Pixal takes a step towards him. "You don't have to be like the others. You don't have to be reprogrammed. You don't have to work under my father, if that's not what you want."

"Pixal, what are you doing?" Zane says.

Cryptor takes a step back. "Why would you want to?"

"I built you," Pixal says. "I feel responsible for you, just as Cyrus Borg does. The others are happy with their memories wiped, but I don't have to do that to you. You are free to have a new life, a new body, and to merely… exist."

"Merely exist," Cryptor repeats. "That's not good enough for me!"

Pixal uses Airjitzu to dodge the scepter, but Cryptor grabs her foot and throws her against the tree trunk. She slides off the branch and barely manages to catch herself on a lower one.

"The Overlord may have built me to serve him," Cryptor says, landing in front of her. "but he knew I was no disposable pawn. He would have given me power. He would have given me a purpose beyond _existence._ " He spits the word out like poison. "You could never give me what I want in life – so I must be the one to take it!"

Pixal swings herself up and lands a kick on his face. "You will not take Zane's life," she says, "and you won't take mine, either. I will give you one more chance. Surrender now, and I will build you a new body, and you may continue to exist – as opposed to your existence in life ending here, forever."

Cryptor growls. "You say that as if you can beat me!"

"I built you," Pixal repeats. "More than that, I programmed you. And you've proven necessary to be _re_ -programmed."

Cryptor freezes.

In that moment, Pixal drops control of the body, giving it back to Zane. _I need you to establish physical contact,_ she says to him. _I can't do it myself; this will take up most of my processing power._

"You're bluffing," Cryptor says. "You wouldn't – you don't have that capability!"

Zane open and closes his hand, adjusting to the sensation being in control of his body again. "I don't know," he says, looking up at Cryptor. "Care to find out?"

Before Cryptor can act, Zane tackles him, knocking him off the branch. While they tumble to the ground, Zane presses his hand against Cryptor's visible eye, and holds it there as the current passes through them, as Cryptor struggles, as Pixal alters bit by bit of code with each pulse of electricity –

They hit the ground.

Cryptor is still.

Zane rolls off him, and takes the scepter away for good measure. "I think you did it," Zane says, looking up at the sky. There's no ghost, but Cryptor's body is still, the light in his eyes gone. "Pixal?"

He can feel the horror in Pixal's systems; she's not making any effort to hide it. Zane frowns. "Pixal? Are you alright?"

"I altered his code," Pixal says. "I made it so he would never hurt anyone again."

"That's… a good thing, right?"

"Zane, you don't understand. Who we knew as Cryptor doesn't exist anymore, not after what I did. I didn't kill him, I erased him. He's not departed, he's just _gone._ "

Zane stares at Cryptor's motionless form. "You erased him," he repeats. "He… he doesn't exist anymore. Not here, not in the Departed Realm…"

"I built him," says Pixal, her voice filled with grief. "I built him, and now I've erased him. My father was distraught when he couldn't bring him back, his code so influenced by the Overlord – I never asked, but I believe he considered him his son. My brother. Now, even if we try to bring him back, he'll be someone else. What have I done, Zane?"

"Pixal, it's going to be okay." Zane looks away from the body. "We have ended a threat. Cryptor was going to take someone's life. He threatened a child. We did what we had to do."

"You didn't –" Pixal starts. Zane interrupts her.

"I feel… partially responsible for this. It was my body that killed, even if you were the one to do it."

He looks up at the eclipse.

"We should rejoin the others."

* * *

"Well," says Kai, looking around the museum, "the mannequins are gone. Except for Morro's, which is… naked."

"Yeah," says Jay, leaning against the wall. "I'm pretty sure he stole the clothes off of it, and I'm sure not gonna be the one who tells him to return them!"

Skylor groans. "Of course he did," she mutters. "Does anyone know where he is?"

"I passed Ronin on the way here," Lloyd says, walking in from another room. "Uh, he said Morro was going to help Zane. Anyone hear from Zane yet?"

"'Help.'" Jay snorts. "I don't think he's trying to help anyone. I mean, come on!"

Nya sighs. "Look, Jay, I know you think Morro's somehow the mastermind behind this – but seriously! He was the one who warned Skylor and told Ronin, and he helped you fight off Samukai! Is it that hard to believe he's trying to be good?"

"Yes!"

"Shut up, Jay," says Lloyd. "We'll take care of whoever did this, no matter who. Look, we've got a situation – Sensei isn't here, we all were attacked by a bunch of ghosts… we need to look for clues."

"The Yin Blade is missing," Kai says. "That was Sensei Yang's, right?"

Jay snaps up straight. "Of course!" he shouts. "That's why Cole's not here! Guys, Sensei Yang is behind all this!"

"What?"

"Why would Sensei Yang be responsible for this?" Nya says. "I mean… other than the curse on the temple, he didn't really _do_ anything."

Jay throws his hands up. "He turned Cole into a ghost!"

"I'm here, guys!" Zane bursts through the doors. "What's going on?"

"Turn your butt around, Zane!" Jay runs past him. "Let's go! We need to get to Yang's temple!"

"We haven't decided anything yet!" Lloyd yells after him. "Jay!"

"Well," Kai says, "he's really worried about this Cole person."

Skylor looks at him in confusion. "You don't remember Cole?"

Kai blinks. "Wait – yeah, Cole! Of course I remember Cole! Why wouldn't I…" He puts a hand to his forehead. "Why is it so hard to remember him?"

Lloyd looks back at the door. "Maybe Jay has a point. Come on, guys! We're going to the Temple of Airjitzu!"

* * *

"When do you plan on telling Lloyd we're getting a divorce?"

Misako turns away. "Not now, Garmadon. It can wait until this night is over."

"It has been weeks since we decided," Garmadon says, sitting at the table while Misako makes tea. "I agree that now isn't the best time… but when will it ever be?"

"Well, it's going to be soon, because you told him we needed to talk –"

"– and I was right to do so!" Garmadon snaps. "We can't keep hiding this from him! We need to stop pretending we're husband and wife!"

"Technically, we were never married in the first place."

"We went through the ceremony, just because we never got a certificate –"

"If it wasn't recognized by the government –"

"If we weren't _married,_ then we wouldn't need a divorce –"

The Bounty's phone rings, interrupting their argument. Misako picks up the receiver. "Hello? Oh, Mr. Borg?"

Garmadon watches as Misako listens to the voice on the other ends. "No, I haven't heard anything," she says. "Not about him, anyway… yes, I've heard the news, one of them came to attack Lloyd. No, Lloyd is fine. Yes, I'll let you know if –"

"Could I talk to him?" Garmadon says.

Misako glances at him. "Sorry, Garmadon would like to speak to you. Yes. No, I'm sure it's not… alright. Here he is."

Garmadon takes the offered phone with a nod. "Mr. Borg?"

"Yes?" Cyrus says. "I'm sorry if I'm a little… off, tonight, it's just – Morro, ah, hasn't been answering my calls, and after the news –"

"I understand," Garmadon says. "You know… I never got a chance to tell you, but my brother has told me about how you took Morro in. You've shown a great deal of care towards him."

"I, ah, thank you?"

"Could we meet in person, sometime? Not now, of course – after this night is over." Garmadon smiles. "There's some things I'd like to talk with you about."

* * *

He makes it to the roof.

A rift is glowing blue in the sky. As Cole watches, Yang lowers the Yin Blade and calls upon his Airjitzu technique. "No!" Cole yells, dropping his weapons. "You're not going anywhere!"

He's so tired, he feels to empty, but somehow, Cole manages to summon the strength to follow Yang. Just before Yang reaches the rift, Cole grabs his foot. Yang shouts and kicks, and both of them lose the focus necessary to maintain their Airjitzu. As they fall through the air, they fight, punching and kicking and tumbling over and over –

They hit the roof. Yang groans and picks himself off the ground. "Give it up!" he shouts. "Your friends have forgotten you! Your sensei has abandoned you! You're all alone!"

"No!" Cole struggles to his feet. "I'm keeping you here until the eclipse ends and the rift closes! You have to stay like this forever – just like I do!"

Yang blinks. "Ah," he says. "Is that the problem?"

Cole picks up his fallen sword and lunges forward. Yang sidesteps him easily. "Very well," he says. "Then I will extend the same offer to you as I did the other ghosts. Take the place of someone from the living world, and you won't be a ghost anymore."

Cole hesitates.

"Yeah right," he says. "I'm not gonna stoop to your level!"

"Do you really hate yourself so much as to believe no one deserves your suffering more than you?" Yang takes a step closer. "Surely, you can think of someone who doesn't deserve the life they've been given? Don't you have someone in mind?"

"I know what you're trying to do," Cole snaps, "and it's not gonna work. I'm not gonna kill Morro – not after what Lloyd went through bringing him back! It's not –" His voice falters. "– it's not Lloyd's fault I'm dead! It's yours! And you're the one who's gonna pay for it!"

Yang laughs. "Oh, don't be like that. Lloyd doesn't have to know it was you."

Cole rolls his eyes. "Yeah, sure. 'Whoops! Morro's dead again, and – completely unrelated – I'm not a ghost anymore!' Like he'd buy that – and like you'd even keep your promise!"

"Of course I'd keep my promise!" Yang says, and he almost sounds offended. "You and I are very much alike, Cole. We don't want to be forgotten – and if you stay a ghost too long, you won't be able to avoid that fate. You're already fading, aren't you?"

Cole says nothing.

"Here." Yang walks forward. Cole backs up into the wall. "I'm not attacking you," Yang says. "The Departed Blades are taken, but you won't have the limit of the eclipse… take this."

He presses the Yin Blade into Cole's hands. Cole stares at it.

"To remain here," Yang says, "you must sacrifice someone else. The Yin Blade contains the same magic as the Departed Blades. Take a life with it, and you'll regain your living form. You can kill whoever you want – there's no limit to the evil people in the world. Surely, you can find someone who deserves it?"

Cole lifts his eyes from Yin to Yang.

"No," he says.

And with strength he didn't know he had, he raises the Yin Blade up and smashes it on the ground.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the end!!! thanks for reading!!!!! now I can finally start the sequel (I say, as if I don't have 3 chapters of it written already)

"No!" Yang screams.

Cole grins at him. "Did you really think I'd do it?" he says. "Kill someone to stay alive? Even if I have to stay like this forever, I won't – gah!"

Yang shoves him hard enough to send him tumbling to the edge of the roof. Cole barely catches himself in time to pull himself back up. He glances at the window and sees Yang's students climbing out –

"Oh no," he mumbles, eyes darting around for his weapon. "Look, guys, I _really_ don't want to fight you, but…"

He trails off. The students look confused, taking off their hoods and staring up at the eclipse. Cole can hear their quiet voices – "What's going on?" "Who's that?" "Are we free?"

"Students!" Yang shouts. "Listen to me! You must stop –"

"Everyone!" Cole interrupts. "Go to the rift! If you hurry, you can be free of this place forever!"

The kids look at him and slowly break into smiles. "You broke the spell!" one of them says. "Thank you!"

Another one pulls at their arm. "C'mon, Charlie, we need to get to the rift! It's already closing!"

Yang glares at them. "If you won't listen –"

Cole tackles him. "I'll hold him off!" he shouts while Yang struggles. "You guys go! Now!"

Yang's former students rush to the edge of the roof, and their Airjitzu technique lifts them into the sky. Cole watches as the group of ghosts disappear into the rift… and a group of living children fall back out. They land on the ground next to the temple and cheer, hugging each other and laughing.

Yang gets a grip on Cole and slams him onto the roof. "What have you done?!" he snarls. "Without the Yin Blade, there's no way to create another rift, even when the next eclipse happens! We're both going to be stuck this way forever!"

"No," Cole says. "Just you!"

He kicks Yang off him and prepares his Airjitzu. He doesn't get far before Yang pulls him out of the sky.

"My students have left me," he says, "but I'll make sure you never leave! Don't you realize, Cole? Your friends have abandoned you!"

"They would never –"

"Oh, no," Yang says, "they would never abandon one of their own – but you're not one of them anymore, are you? Don't you understand the curse of this place?"

"Just because I'm dead doesn't mean –"

"I'm surprised they've remembered you this long!" Yang laughs. "Perhaps if you stayed with them longer, instead of going off on your own to fight me – well, maybe things would be different. But without your presence reminding them, you'll be forgotten."

He shoves Cole down again. Cole can't find the strength to get back up.

"No," he says, "no, no, they wouldn't – they can't forget –"

"They have, Cole."

No.

"No one is coming for you."

_No._

"You're all alone, just like I am."

Cole can feel himself fading. It would be so easy to let himself drift away. He's struggled so hard to stay alive… and he's still a ghost.

He gave it everything he had, and he still failed.

Cole closes his eyes.

"…ole…"

At least he'll never forget his friends, even if they've forgotten him.

"…Cole…"

Even now, he can almost hear –

" _Cole!_ "

He opens his eyes.

* * *

The wind is raging. Jay struggles to keep his jet steady as he flies it towards the temple. "Cole! Cole! Don't give up! You're so close!"

He saw Yang's students go through the rift, and they're alive now! Cole can make it, too! Jay grits his teeth and pushes his jet forward. "Don't let Yang get to you!" he yells. He can't hear what they're saying, but with how Cole is just sitting there, his form so faded Jay can hardly see him – "Come on, Cole!"

He flies higher, which turns out to be a stupid move, because the winds are much stronger up high, and now he can't see Cole. He's in danger of losing control of the jet. Jay points the nose right at the temple and wonders how much a crash landing would hurt.

His radio crackles. "Jay!" Lloyd says. "What're you doing?!"

"Rescuing Cole!"

"You're going to get yourself killed!" comes Nya's voice. "It's too dangerous to go anywhere near the temple – especially by air!"

"I don't care!"

The radio crackles with a new voice. "Hey," says Ronin, "anyone seen Morro? 'Cause I dunno where he is, and –"

"Dude!" Kai yells. "How'd you get on this frequency?!"

"Well –"

Jay turns his radio off.

Every time he thinks he's getting close, the wind forces him to back off again. Jay keeps yelling, hoping that Cole can hear him, as the rift gets smaller and smaller. "Cole, Cole, please! I don't want to lose you!" The jet tilts, spins, and Jay wrestles with the controls to try and pull it upright. " _Cole!_ "

* * *

Cole pulls himself back to the living world and gets to his feet. "You're wrong!" he says to Yang, who is staring in disbelief. "I'm not forgotten!"

"But… but…" Yang stammers. "All my work, my plans… I _failed._ "

"Yeah! You did!" He doesn't have time to waste; Cole can see the rift closing. He calls on Airjitzu and jumps up –

– only for Yang to grab his leg again. Cole yelps and struggles to keep himself airborne. "Let me go!" he shouts.

"I was forgotten," Yang hisses, "and I'll make sure you are, too."

Cole reaches for the rift, so far away – "Please! Let me go!"

"No!" Yang yanks him down. "If I have to be forgotten –"

"Sensei, stop!"

Cole and Yang look down towards the voice. Though most of Yang's students have dispersed, one remains, staring up at Yang with wide eyes. "You won't be forgotten, Sensei," they say. "I'll never forget you."

"Charlie?" Yang says. "Why would you care? What have I ever done for you?"

"You gave me a home," Charlie says. "I – I wasn't anyone before you took me in. You taught me Airjitzu, and you gave me a family, and – and – I can't forget you, Sensei. Not after everything you've done for me."

Yang's grip on Cole's leg loosens. When Cole tries to pull away, Yang regains his grip and pulls him down again.

"So please, Sensei." Charlie uses Airjitzu to join them on the roof. "Let Cole go."

"Why should I?" Yang growls.

"Do you really want to be remembered like this?" Charlie gestures at Cole, then down at the cluster of students watching from the ground. "You can be the bad guy, and you can keep Cole here to be forgotten… or you can let him go, and be remembered as the sensei who took me in when I had nowhere to go."

The wind howls. Cole can hear Jay's shouting, see his jet struggling to make it through the gale.

"Please, Sensei."

Yang lets go.

* * *

The wind has stopped. Jay manages to land the jet with minimal damage, and he wastes no time in clambering out and looking around. "Cole? _Cole?_ "

No answer. Jay runs forward. Even if he's still a ghost, it's not like Cole would just disappear, would he? He feels heavy dread pooling in his gut. Cole has to be here, because the alternative, that he's gone –

Jay bumps into one of the now-living students and yelps. "Sorry!" the kid says, while Jay tries to calm his racing heart. "Are you alright?"

"Have you seen Cole?!" Jay blurts out.

They shake their head. "Not since the rift. I don't know if…"

"He made it," Jay insists. "He – he had to! He doesn't deserve to just – just – disappear!"

He spins around, looking for any sign of Cole. He sees nothing.

"Sometimes it's not about what people deserve," the student says. "Sometimes bad things happen for no reason."

"No!" Jay yells. "He's got to come back!"

They take a shuddering breath. "I… I thought I could save him, like he saved all of us, I thought Sensei would listen to me, but…"

"This isn't fair!" Tears are pricking at his eyes. He stomps his foot, wants to grab handfuls of the grass and tear them up and cry and scream – "This isn't fair! Cole should still be here!"

He falls to his knees and covers his face, sobbing into his hands. He feels like he did years ago, when Zane sacrificed himself to defeat the Overlord – but somehow, this is even less fair. There was no great evil to defeat. Cole died for no reason, and now he was gone for good.

Leaves rustle in front of him.

"Jay?"

Jay snaps his head up.

Cole stands in front of him, his body solid, a grin slowly spreading across his face. Jay gapes at him, tears staining his face.

Cole laughs. "Didn't think you'd – oof!"

Yang's former student barrels into Cole's chest, wrapping their arms around him and crying. Cole gives them a pat on the head. "Don't worry, Charlie, I'm fine."

"You stupid jerk!" Jay exclaims, and he scrambles to his feet and staggers over to his best friend. "You stupid – augh!"

Jay joins the hug, pressing his face into Cole's shoulder. He smells like dirt and sweat. Cole hesitates, then hugs him back. "Missed you too, bud," he says. "Even though I was only gone for like… a few hours."

"I thought you were departed!" Jay sniffs and wipes his nose. "I thought I'd never see you again! Why'd you confront Yang by yourself, stupid?! You should've told someone!"

"Yeah," Cole says. "That was kinda stupid of me. Hey, do you have any idea why I was resurrected with clothes on? Not that I want to be naked, it just seems kinda weird."

Charlie lets go and takes a step back. "Your clothes got cursed too," they say. "Now the curse is broken."

"Cool," says Cole. "Jay, buddy, are you okay?"

Jay sniffs again. "No!"

"Can you at least be happy for me? I'm alive again and all –"

"Of course I'm happy for you!" Jay says loudly, right in Cole's ear. "You're alive again! I just – I could've lost you forever, and everyone else was starting to forget you, and – oh God, they'll remember you now, right? _Right?_ "

"Jay."

Jay starts hyperventilating.

Cole pries his arms off him and sits him down on the ground. "Calm down," he says. "If you don't calm down, I'm gonna start freaking out, and that's not gonna help anything."

"Okay. Okay." Jay attempts deep breaths. "I'm calm. Totally not freaking out. Everything's good."

Cole laughs. "Come on, you goofball," he says. "Let's tell everyone else the good news."

Charlie jumps to their feet. "Yeah!"

Cole glances at them. "Oh, uh, Charlie? Could you get the other kids? We should probably figure out where all of you are going…"

* * *

When Morro looks up again, the eclipse has faded. He decides he's spent enough time sitting in a dirty alley and stands up.

Surprisingly, the phone screen is still usable. Careful not to prick himself on the glass, he sends Cyrus the text, "im coming home." Immediately after he sends it, his phone starts ringing. Morro rolls his eyes; he'll be able to talk in person soon enough, won't he? He silences the phone and begins walking home.

Now that the eclipse is over, the streets are empty of people. The stores are closing, lights flicking off as he walks by. He has to use his ID card to get back in the tower, and his fingers are stiff from cold. He fumbles the card and doesn't unlock the door until his third try.

Cyrus is waiting in the lobby. "Morro!" he exclaims, wheeling up to him. "Where were you? What have you been doing? You know you can't ignore my calls like that! Are you alright?"

Morro says nothing.

He sighs. "I'm sorry, but you really scared me. I need you to answer your phone when I call you. You know that."

"Yes," Morro says.

Cyrus repeats his question: "Are you alright?"

Morro looks around the lobby. The receptionist continues packing up their things and pretends they weren't staring.

"Yes," he says, and tries to get around his father to the elevator.

Cyrus follows him. "Would it help if we talked in private?" he says. "I really would like to talk about tonight."

"Maybe I just want to sleep," Morro says.

Cyrus gets in the elevator with him. Morro doesn't object.

On the way up to the hundredth floor, Morro says, "I think everyone hates me."

"You know that's not true, Morro."

He scowls. "It's enough people that it feels like everyone," he says. "Like if I go up to someone on the street, it's a fifty-fifty chance that they'll want me dead again."

Cyrus frowns. "Did something happen while you were out? I don't know if you saw the news, but there were reports of possessed mannequins causing a commotion…"

Morro nods. "I don't know who did it, but I saw them, yes."

"Did they hurt you? Try to?"

"Not me." There's a lump in his throat. Morro swallows hard and tries to keep his voice steady. "There was a kid…"

The elevator doors open. In Morro's room, Cyrus gets out of his wheelchair to sit on the bed next to him while Morro quietly recounts the events of the Day of the Departed. "I never went back to Zane and Pixal," he says. "I hope they're okay."

"Pixal told me some of it," Cyrus says. "She messaged me shortly before you came home. She's fine. She would tell me if something happened."

Morro nods. "That's good."

They sit in silence for a few moments. Cyrus clears his throat. "What Alex's mother said –"

"She didn't _say_ anything," Morro says. "She just – looked at me, and realized who I was, and…"

Cyrus hugs him. Tears prick at Morro's eyes and he blinks rapidly to dispel them. It doesn't work.

"I stand by what I said," Cyrus says. "You've changed. You're not that same person anymore. You've grown so, so much since then – in just these past months, even."

"When will it feel like it?" Morro mumbles. "Because it doesn't. I feel like I could go back to – to being horrible anytime I wanted."

"But you choose not to, every day. Don't think that being good is something you do naturally – it's a choice. It always has been. Would you have made that choice when you were a ghost?"

Morro doesn't answer.

"I promise," Cyrus says, "I'll do everything I can to support you. There are ways to improve your public image, you know. It's not as if I don't have experience with this, after the Overlord."

"I guess," Morro says.

"We can explore our options at breakfast tomorrow. It's been a long day." Cyrus releases him and smiles. "Are you feeling any better?"

Not really, Morro thinks. "Yes," he says.

"That's good. Can you help me for a moment?"

Morro stands up and helps Cyrus get back into his wheelchair. "I'm going to have to go back to the museum," he says. "Return the clothes I took."

Cyrus chuckles. "You don't have to. I won't count stealing from Saunders as a mark on your record."

"I… guess?" Morro frowns. "When you said you had history together…"

"I may have lost him his job as a college professor."

"What?"

"He deserved it." Cyrus shrugs. "But that's a story for another time. Get ready for bed, Morro. We'll talk again in the morning."

"Okay."

At the door, Cyrus pauses and looks back at Morro. "I love you, you know."

Morro manages a smile. "I love you too, Dad."

* * *

The next morning, Garmadon goes to Borg Tower.

It's a long trip, made longer by Garmadon traveling on his own. Misako offered to go with him, but Garmadon didn't want to sit through another argument. No, he goes on his own.

Cyrus greets him in his office on the hundredth floor. "It's nice to see you again!" he says with a smile as Garmadon takes a seat in front of the desk. "How are you doing?"

"I have good days and bad days," Garmadon says. "Today is a good day, I hope."

"Don't we all, eh?" Cyrus chuckles. "What did you want to talk with me about?"

Garmadon leans forward and clasps his hands together. "I would like to talk about Morro," he says.

"Ah," Cyrus says, and doesn't continue.

Garmadon takes a deep breath. "In a way, I'm indebted to him," he says. "Had it not been for him, I would still be in the Cursed Realm. You, Morro, Skylor, Kai and Nya, and Terra and Nova – had you not come down there, I would have never been able to escape. So thank you for that."

"But that's not what you want to talk about," Cyrus says.

"I believe Lloyd when he says Morro has changed." Garmadon frowns. "I want to make it clear that I would not believe anyone else. You have clearly worked to give Morro a good life… but I worry you are coddling him."

"Coddling?" Cyrus shakes his head. "I… don't know what you mean."

"Do you understand the magnitude of what Morro did?" Garmadon says. "To Stiix? To the ninja? To my son?"

Cyrus blinks. "He's changed," he says. "You just told me you believe this. I told him I'd support him in making up for what he's done –"

"He hasn't done much to make up for anything."

"You don't know that –"

"I do," Garmadon says. "But even if he had done something, anything to try and make amends… Lloyd still has nightmares, most nights, about what Morro did to him. Possessing him, trying to force his body to kill his friends… you must be aware of this."

"Did you come here to threaten him?"

"No, but Morro must make amends for what he's done."

"And how would you have him do that?" Cyrus says sharply. "He's been through so much already, and he's trying so hard – I've seen how much he's grown! Believe me, I'm fully aware of his past, and what he's done – but what matters is that he's changed. He's not that person anymore. If you want me to talk to him about making amends, I will, but I don't see the point of this conversation otherwise."

"I was afraid of this." Garmadon stands up.

"Afraid? I don't –"

"Listen to me," Garmadon says. "As a father, I understand how you feel. You don't want any harm to befall your son. I understand this."

He fixes Cyrus with a glare.

"And _as a father,_ I will say this: if your goal is to prevent Morro from ever facing justice for his actions, then for my son's sake, I will personally see to it that you fail."

Cyrus opens his mouth, but no words come out.

Garmadon turns away.

"I'll see you around, Cyrus Borg," he says, and leaves.

* * *

The ninja agree to help clean up the museum early next week. He thanks them, hangs up the phone, and makes sure the museum doors are locked retreating into the restroom. In the past, he's left his disguise on even in private, worried that someone will walk in on him, and these years of planning will be for nothing.

Tonight, Krux tears off the disguise, throws it to the ground and stares at himself in the mirror. His hair has gone gray, his face is old and wrinkled. These forty years have not been kind to him.

But he won't have to wait much longer.

There are only days remaining until the forty years are up.

Krux chuckles to himself and picks his disguise back up before exiting the restroom. With a flip of the switch, the hidden door swings open, and he steps inside the secret room. The tank quietly bubbles; the Vermillion he's breeding here won't hatch for a while yet. He'll check on the ones in the swamp… tonight? No, tomorrow. Nothing in the swamp needs his attention just yet. He can spend the night here.

He clicks the light on and sits at his desk, going over the plans once again. He selected Cyrus Borg as the one to build the time machine years ago, but he's long since ruined any chance of getting Borg to work with him willingly. Then again, the blacksmiths hadn't been willing either. Krux had certainly solved that problem! Krux will get the revenge he's been waiting decades for, even if he has to wait decades more.

A picture slips out of the papers he's flipping through. Krux picks it up. It's an old, black-and-white photograph of two young adults, one with short black hair pulled back tight on his head, the other's hair styled into dreads falling past the shoulders. Both of them are grinning at the camera. Krux finds himself smiling, too.

"Don't worry," he says aloud. "We won't fail. I'll make sure of it."

He puts the picture away and gets back to work.

"I'll see you soon, Acronix."

**THE END**

_Morro Sky Borg will return in_ **_drinking from the river_ ** _._


End file.
